


To Win The World

by orphan_account



Series: To Win The World [3]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Carjacking, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Police, Break Up, Carjacking, Excessive Cursing, Graphic Description, Hacking, Implied Relationships, Implied Sexual Content, Injury, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Prison, Threats of Violence, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2016-05-07
Packaged: 2018-05-03 07:54:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 37,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5282867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Someday we're going to look back on all this and regret it, you know?"</p><p>"If we survive until then, I won't regret a thing."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the third installment of a series of fanfictions I wrote a while back. I definitely recommend reading the other two to fully understand this one. Very heavily based on GTA 5, and some other GTA's, along with some Top Gear watching, and some inspiration of my own. 
> 
> I guess all I can say is this is long overdue. Thanks to all the people who waited, or even the people who didn't. I hope you enjoy. Eruri, carjacking AU, multi-chapter.

"Don't shoot him!"

            If it had been anyone else, the group probably would not have listened. After driving close to a hundred and twenty-five miles per hour for the last half-hour had nearly every cop on edge. Guns out, not even a second thought, gripping tight, finger on the trigger. Most of them released upon the command yelled at them, but others weren't so sure.

            Steam and smoke was billowing out the front of the car, upside-down, hood smashed, windows shattered, gasoline mixed with blood. Yet somehow the driver had exited the passenger side, out into the empty Nevada desert. The sun was high. Not a single cloud. He was crawling on the ground, pretty white suit torn and covered in a mix of dirt and sand, and sticking with more dark blood. He was heaving, left hand shakily clutching a revolver.

            "Don't you dare shoot him." the cops standing around, and those who had just arrived only looked around in confusion. They had their hands still cupping their guns, but pointed down at the desert floor. A hawk was circling overhead. The wind was loud. The gasps were getting harsher. The driver on the ground was coughing. Gasoline and a rotten, foul smell was strong in the air. Someone was shouldering their way through the whole group of cops.

            "Get out of my fucking way." whoever was in earshot took a huge step back. The way cleared. Coming from the middle was a shorter man, notorious to the force. He didn't have his gun out. At least sixty miles back when this had started, someone had fired a bullet into his arm, yet he followed and gave chase instead of nursing it. Blood was dripping down his right arm. He stumbled forward, wiping his black and white bangs back. His blood smeared his forehead. It ran in the scar over his left eye. One that had left a milky white color in his iris. Beside the man was a woman, a fair few inches taller than him.

            "Captain Levi... he's armed."

            Levi acted like he did not hear. "You motherfucker. What the hell are you doing here?"

            "Levi...?" the driver coughed harsh, no blood came from his mouth. There was cuts all over. He crawled forward a bit. Levi came up as well, as if to meet him. The driver pointed the revolver up, and shifted to his knees.

            "Captain, the gun!"

            "It's not loaded." Levi snapped. "I know his type."

            "Sir?..." the woman came forward, black hair cut short, with an undercut like Levi's, but slightly longer in the front. "Captain, who is this man? Do you know him?"

            Levi scowled, and kicked the glass at his feet.

            "It's my fuckin ex."

* * *

 

The whole station had gotten tense when they came back. Most were expecting a body count after the whole situation. Some bullet wounds had been patched up. Other officers were sharing their absurd stories of their being a dozen men with guns. Once Levi had his arm plugged and patched, he went back to work. Admirable, of course, he had transferred to Las Vegas only a few months ago to train newbies, and sure enough he had staked his reputation of throwing himself into danger.

            Someone else had also been there. Stripped, searched, now donning a orange jumpsuit. He had only one arm, but he didn't make it a hassle to usher him around, nor to cuff him to the desk. They kept him there for a good hour, his only request was to lower the air conditioner. His dirty blue eyes were staring straight at the two way mirror. Fingers drummed on the table. Some newbies were standing around, only two or three were allowed to examine.

            "So that's him?" the boy, for he was barely a man, was standing beside the black haired woman who had been on the chase. "Shame I missed it. Sounds like a hell of a time."

            "It wasn't that great, Eren." Mikasa touched the back of her head, feeling the short patch of hair. She sighed, raked her fingers through he hair.

            "Who'd he say this guy was again?"

            "His ex."

            "Wh- for real? I thought the other guys was making that up."

            Mikasa shook her head. "Captain said so himself."

            Eren gave a low whistle. "Wow. I didn't know he swung that way."

            "Does it matter?"

            "I guess in this case it does."

            The door to the interrogation room opened. The two on the other side of the glass went quiet. Levi entered, stepped to the other side of the desk, and shut the door. He carried a hefty looking box, and set it down on the table. It was a recording machine. Levi set a file down as well. Then he sat himself, and stared forward, right at Erwin.

            "You motherfucker."

            "Been a while since I heard that." Erwin hummed, his voice wasn't exactly happy. It sounded mixed, not an ounce of nervousness, but extreme curiosity.

            "What the fuck happened out there?"

            "Judging from where I am now, a lot of mistakes, I imagine."

            "Shut up."

            "You asked."

            Levi scoffed. He shook his head, leg jittering up and down as he bounced his foot. Bristling with irritation.

            "You look good." Erwin leaned his head forward towards his hand. He pointed at his own hairline. "I see you're going for the natural look. Grey hair and everything."

            "Shove it up your ass." Levi instinctively brushed his bangs back. There was only a handful of grey hair appearing at his hairline. The rest had remained its usual jet black.

            Erwin himself, his hair had not changed, other than being messy and falling over his forehead as it was right now rather than combed neatly. However Levi wasn't looking at his hair. More the bruise under his right eye, the cut on his lip, split in the middle. The scratches on his left side where he had clearly slid during the crash. There was two staples just above his right eyebrow. Levi stared there for a long time. Erwin looked to Levi. He had such a gentle look. Warm, like a blue summer sky. Levi reeled, and glared at Erwin in disgust, like he would vomit on the man. Erwin shut his eyes, then he looked back at the mirror.

            "How long has it been?" Erwin mumbled. "It's been a few years I'm sure."

            "Five years." Levi barked. "Not that you would keep track."

            Erwin sighed. "Levi."

            "Don't 'Levi' me, you fuck." Levi snapped. "What the hell were you thinking? What were you doing out here in Vegas? Why are you in this situation? How the hell did you ever get here?"

            Erwin shut his eyes, and cringed slight. He just seemed to be upset about Levi's tone more than what he was saying.

            "Of course, what would I know? Last I checked you were stuck in Italy with a missing passport and a bunch of whores."

            "Levi."

            "Shut up." His eyebrows were knitted. Black eyes narrowed. Livid. Erwin could only smile.

            "I can't tell you. And you can't ask."

            "What do you mean I can't fuckin ask?" Levi slammed his hands on the table. "You owed me that much when you fucking left!"

            "You can't ask, because you're not the investigator." Erwin said calmly. Levi grit his teeth. He curled his left hand to a fist, and sank back down in his chair. He scoffed again, shaking his head.

            "Of course. I know that." Levi mumbled.

            "In fact, why are you even here? Unless they wanted you to scare me. I haven't exactly resisted so I doubt that." Erwin shifted in his metal chair. The handcuff chain clattered and clinked. "So... you must've asked to see me."

            "Our investigator is new. He had to get called in to interview you." Levi hissed. "I could bet you all the money I have that his deadweight friends are on the other side of the glass."

            "That's quite a bit of money. I would know." Erwin replied. He drummed his fingers on the table. He glanced down at the recording machine on the table, and crinkled his eyes a bit. He pointed, unable to lift his hand any higher. "That's a bit... archaic, don't you think?"

            "This whole division is archaic. It's fuckin Las Vegas. They don't know how to put a drink and a blunt down long enough to figure out updating shit. Crime is insane out here, it flies right over everybody's head all the time." Levi sighed, and shook his head. "And yet they still got you."

            "What can I say?"

            "Hopefully nothing."

            There was a knock on the door, and before any answer came, it opened. Standing there was a young man, about Levi's height, maybe a bit taller. Long blond hair, and blue eyes framed in large rectangle frames. The boy removed his glasses and cleaned them on his shirt. He was wearing a turtleneck, Levi couldn't imagine why with the Nevada heat. He assumed he thought it made him look approachable. But he didn't like to delve into that sort of psyche things. He raised his brows, and looked to Levi.

            "Captain Levi. I thought I heard someone in here." he walked in and shut the door. "I'm sorry to intrude. Am I bothering you?"

            "No. Just do your job." Levi stood up sharp, and walked out. The other took the seat. He smoothly ran his fingers through his hair, and pulled it back in a loose ponytail.

            "My name is Armin. You're... Erwin Smith, yes?"

            Erwin nodded. "Nice to meet you."

            Armin gave a small smile. "Likewise." He opened the folder. "Now. Can you tell me your birthday? And the last four digits of your social security number?"

            "October fourteenth. I don't have a card."

            Armin nodded. He wrote something. "Just making sure we have our guy..." he looked over his glasses. "We don't have records on you after your military campaign. Just dental records. Nothing in the last five years. Not credit cards or phones or anything."

            Eren and Mikasa turned when they heard the door open. Levi walked inside, slamming the door shut, and leaned in towards the glass.

            "Captain." Eren said aloud.

            "Enjoying the show?" Levi spat. He didn't look at either of them, and stared at Erwin. Erwin was only looking down.

            Eren and Mikasa looked at each other. Eren glanced to Levi.

            "Is it... is it true sir?"

            "What?" Levi's eyes were on him.

            "Um... about, about this guy. And you." Eren glanced down at his feet. "Uh, nevermind."

            "What? About if we fucked or not?"

            "Oh I, I didn't mean, I just... I, I shouldn't have asked." Eren went silent, eyes wide and staring down at his feet. Mikasa watched Armin. Levi turned back, massaged his right temple. Armin set his folder down, and pulled out a picture, and slid it over the table. The picture was of a woman, pale, eyes shut, naked, covered in bruises and an incision across her collarbone and down. She looked to be laying on steel. Erwin looked at the picture for a while, and back at Armin.

            "Does this person look familiar to you?"

            Erwin shook his head.

            "Really?" Armin glanced down at the papers in his file. "Are you sure?"

            "Yeah." Erwin blinked.

            "Well, the report says she was in the trunk of your car." Armin replied.

            Erwin raised his eyebrows. He stared straight at Armin, and looked down at the photo. His forehead crease, he touched the edge of the photo with his cuffed hand. He shook his head.

            "That can't be true. I don't know her."

            Levi leaned towards the glass. His expression matched Erwin's, forehead creased, eyes narrow, face contorted in a mix of confusion and shock.

            "When the fuck did that happen?" Levi snapped.

            "We found her when you were escorting him to your cruiser." Mikasa spoke up. "She looked a lot worse before they cleaned her up in the morgue."

            "She was dead before the day started. That's what the autopsy said." Armin went on. "No heart, no lungs, no kidneys, no eyes. Almost everything was missing, actually. Even a lot of blood. She was probably killed the yesterday night." He set the autopsy report down. Armin pushed his glasses up. "Of course, this has nothing to do with why you were originally fleeing the scene."

            Erwin swallowed. He glanced down.

            "That was quite a car that got wrecked." Armin remarked. "Bently Continental Supersport. It's not registered either. No insurance. Not even any evidence it was paid for. Doesn't seem like anyone even knows where it came from. Like a whole car disappeared out of production." Armin set the file down. He sighed. "If you want to explain, you better do it fast."

            Erwin grit his teeth. His eyes were calm, glancing to Armin, he didn't seem to have any fight or resistance. "That Bently was brought over. It was mine. I've been in the country for about a year. I was in the middle of a deal with someone. They asked me to transport something. Not a body. I didn't put the body in there. I have no idea why there'd be a body or whose it is or anything. I... I think I was set up."

            "Ah. You were doing transporting. So that's what this is?"

            Armin dropped another picture. It was a pile of different things. Cracked bottles of Rohypnol. Blotter papers for acid. Liquid cocaine, half the bottle was empty from being cracked and leaking. Amyls. Heroin. Marijuana wrapped in saran wrap. Erwin stared. He didn't react.

            "You don't seem surprised. So you knew?"

            "No. They don't tell me what I'm taking. I just popped the trunk and they put it in. I..." Erwin shook his head. "This was a set up. I know it was."

            "All right, Mr. Smith." Armin didn't sound very convinced. "If they set you up... Can you describe who.. 'they' are?"

            Erwin was quiet for a long moment. Then he shook his head.

            "You idiot." Levi slammed his fist against the wall. He was only a few inches from the glass.  Armin glanced back after hearing the glass thump. Erwin stared down at the table, looking at the pictures in front of him. He had a deep sigh in his chest. With the injuries marking his face, he looked very tired. And much older. It struck Levi how Erwin looked a lot skinnier, he looked pale, not sickly but as if he hadn't been getting sunlight. His left hand was callous, as always. He looked worn, and tired. Levi narrowed his eyes.

            "Where have you been...?" he mumbled under his breath. "Where did you go five years ago...?"

            Erwin could not hear. Yet Levi had a feeling he might not answer anyway.

            "Well, I appreciate your co-operation thus far. I'll have police escort you out." Armin stood. "You'll be given an attorney, unless you decide to plead guilty."

            "I'm innocent. I didn't kill anyone."

            Armin nodded his head. He shut off the recording, and glanced back to the camera in the corner for a moment. Then he tucked away his things, and gave a small bow of his head. "Goodbye Mr. Smith."

            Erwin gave a head nod. He sighed.

            "Well..." Armin started when he opened the door into the mirror room. "I don't know what to say. He isn't confessing, and if he's innocent he's not going to provide information. Nothing I can do." Armin adjusted his turtleneck collar, and gave a low sigh. "May as well just send him off to the prison. Intakes getting full around here. Well, if you could do the escort."

            "I'll do it." Levi stepped forward.

            "No."

            "Excuse me?"

            Armin stepped back. "I said no. You're too personally involved with this man. I think it would be better for you to be removed from the case entirely."

            "I'm taking him to a cell not fuckin testifying." Levi snapped. "Besides, he can rot for all I care."

            Armin stared over Levi for a moment. "All right. It's not my prerogative anyway."

            "I'll go with you, sir." Eren volunteered.

            "Sure, whatever."

            Levi exited, Eren close behind. He was wide eyed, wider mouthed, Levi still called him a kid, but he knew Eren was capable, to say the least. For now he didn't care too much about it. He was more focused on the man in the orange jumper. Levi was taking every ounce of his being to not reach out and strangle him. Bubbling under his skin was enough rage to kill, and Levi knew, and he wanted Erwin to know. And Erwin did. Levi knew Erwin did. And yet he still acted the same. It made Levi furious. Erwin looked up almost shameful when Eren approached. Erwin's eyes are always on Levi.

            "Um..." Eren looked down at the table cuff.

            "What?" Levi snapped.

            "Sir, how do I... handcuff him?" Eren was looking to Erwin's empty orange sleeve, and to his only hand cuffed to the desk.

            "Cuff his wrist and cuff him to yourself or his belt loop. Use your brain."

            "Right." Eren approached Erwin, he placed the cuff, and attached the other to his wrist. Erwin watched patiently. Eren opened the desk cuffs. "Stand up."

            Erwin stood. Eren came forward, walking to the side of the desk before yanking Erwin suddenly.

            "Walk next to him idiot." Levi barked. "He's not gonna phase through the table."

            "Right, sorry." Eren collected himself, and stood beside the man, walking around the chair, and heading out the door. They three walked down the hallway, Eren and Erwin side by side, and Levi, standing behind, watching.

            "Friend of yours?" Erwin asked.

            "Huh?" Eren looked up.

            "Levi. Is he a friend of yours?"

            "Oh, well.. I..." Eren glanced back. Levi was glaring. Eren whipped his head back forward. "I suppose... not. He's our trainer. He's been teaching us about weapons and fighting and those sort of things."

            "Eren. Don't speak to him."

            "Really? I didn't know you could teach. You don't seem the type."

            "He's one of the best."

            "Eren."

            Eren nodded, and shut his mouth. Erwin glanced back, and then forward.

            "They teach you gun techniques yet?"

            "No." Eren spoke. "Well, I'm in the middle of it. Mikasa already passe-" he shut his mouth when Levi's hand slapped the back of his head. Eren stiffened up. They made their way through the processing area. At least a dozen people were crowded in the holding cell. Quite a few were being patted down in different rooms. Erwin glanced around.

            "So you must only carry mace?" Erwin asked.

            "Taser actually." Eren bit his tongue. Erwin glanced back at Levi. The skin around his eyes were tight. He was scowling. Erwin gave a small smile.

            "No need to be afraid." Erwin spoke. "I just want to make small talk. Levi just likes to be extra careful."

            Eren glanced back, and then to Erwin. They came to the door, and pushed open. The sky was gold, orange, the events that afternoon had come down from their high, and night was fast approaching. The crash and slow burn. Erwin looked around. Dust flecked up in the parking lot. Large fences with spiraling barbed wire. Tall white towers hang above. The sally port was open. An empty bus was waiting for prisoners to fill in. Cuffed behind the back, dressed in orange. Some uniformed officers were roll-calling names. In large black letters on a cement sign was the name of the prison intake center. Erwin stared up in the purple-pink clouds in the sky.

            "Levi. You believe me, don't you?"

            "Don't speak to me."

            "I wouldn't kill someone. You know that. At the very least."

            "Shut up."

            "Levi."

            "Just, _shut up_." Levi hissed. "Don't speak to me."

            The three approached the other officers passing the prisoners through the gate, and towards the bus. The cop cars were all lined up beside the wall. There was another cop car there, checking a drunk driver that had been caught a few moments ago. He was struggling still, so much so that the two cops had to both had to hold him, trying to secure him. They kept all the doors open on the cop car, struggling to pull the man out. Both jumped away when he tried to bite. One of the officers swung a punch at the drunk, trying to make him compliant. Levi pointed to the officers by the prison bus.

            "Just dump him with these idiots. There off to prison right now, they can squeeze one more in."

            "Right." Eren looked at Erwin. "I'm going to cuff you to your belt loop." he stated.

            "Very well." Erwin replied.

            The drunk man was shouting and spitting at the cops, a string of curse words. The other officers were were busy with the inmates they already had, making sure to check their names and that they were all accounted for. The two cops dragged the man through the large steel doors, which shut slow behind them.

            Eren leaned forward, and uncuffed himself from Erwin.

            The snapping noise, sharp, staccato, catches Levi off guard. His left eye had been having vision problems since the scar, but the suddenness is too fast for him to even catch it. Erwin caught the cuff in his hand, open, clasped with his fingers, and slammed the handcuff fist into Eren's head like he was wearing brass knuckles. Eren dropped to the pavement, face first, stunned. The officers are slow to react. They turn only to stare in shock.

            "Sorry." Erwin panted, following Eren to the ground. Levi reached out at Erwin, ready to beat him down within an inch of his life. Part of Levi felt he was hoping for an opportunity. Erwin stands and shifts forward, right into Levi instead of away.His arm was around Levi's throat, squeezing so hard he could feel a pulse on his arm. Levi face was flushing red. It was with rage.

            "You son of a bitch!" Levi screamed. "Let go of me!"

            "I can't. I'm sorry. Really."

            "Don't give me that!"

            "Levi-"

            "Don't you 'Levi' me!"

            "Honey-"

            "Don't you fucking 'honey' me!"

            "Stop struggling!"

            Levi heard a pop right by his ear, and a jolt ran down his spine, back up, and his legs collapsed under him, his body shuddered and his throat let out a yelp as he lost his ability to speak proper English. The sharpness of the sensation is so familiar, Levi knew he'd been tased. He glanced down at Eren, still holding his head, dazed. His belt compartment was empty, the long range taser on the pavement, the short range one in Erwin's hands.

            "Drop your weapon!" one officer had the good idea to pull their gun. Another followed suit. The inmates who were cuffed looked around bug-eyed, one collapsed to the floor, causing the other officer to glance to the inmate out of fear something was afoot. Erwin walked backwards, not fast, not slow. He glanced back, then forward to the officer holding the gun.

            "Don't you dare fuckin shoot me..." Levi gurgled, his throat was fried by the taser, he could barely speak. His face was flushing red to purple with pure anger. The officers were holding their gun. They didn't fire. Waiting for Erwin to turn around. He was holding Levi by the throat, crouched, using Levi as a shield, keeping the taser off, but close to Levi's throat. Erwin glanced at the open cop car. He stepped back as fast he could, muttering soft apologies in Levi's ear, hollow promises for explanations, small sweet words about hoping Levi was okay, and he would make him safe soon.

            "I'm gonna explain everything, I promise." Erwin whispered in his ear. His breath was warm. "Please just help me out."

            Levi growled more curse words. He could feel Erwin's body sinking down, into the cab of a pursuit vehicle. Erwin kept Levi on his lap, Levi was numb, trying to move as best he could. Erwin placed him on the side, and turned the key in the ignition. A shot fired. Glass shattered in the driver's window. Erwin flinched, and ducked in the cab. The engine roared, he stamped the gas, thrown in reverse, and slammed the back of the prison bus. The back lights shattered on both vehicles. Erwin pulled into drive, and floored again. The vehicle shot off, out the sally port, down the long stretch of black pavement and out into the darkening sunset of the Nevada desert.


	2. Chapter 2

"You motherfucker! You _motherfucker_ I can't believe you did it again!" Levi was screaming, struggling to sit upright in the cop car. His whole body was reacting delayed, muscles still feeling the convulsion that went through him only moments ago. He went to swing at Erwin, but Erwin saw it too fast, and pushed Levi back and down. Too slow, too numb. All Levi could do was cuss loud. He made sure Erwin knew he could do that much.

       "I'm so sorry, oh, god, are you okay?" Erwin breathed hard, his hand was wrapped around the steering wheel, still clutching the handcuff in his hand. It happened so fast, Erwin hadn't even gotten the passenger door shut. It almost slammed against Levi, but the man leaned back towards Erwin when it did.

       "I'll make sure you aren't!" Levi shouted. "I'll call the cops on you! I mean it this time!"

       "Levi, I'm so happy to see you-"

       "I sure as fuck am not!"

       "I was so worried." Erwin floored the gas. He could hear a siren in the distance, it wasn't a car, but the intake. The alarms were wailing, but Erwin did not attempt to care. He was filled with a mild mix of happiness and relief and he hadn't felt that in a long time. The high was enough to get him focused on getting out of that place as soon as possible. He looked to Levi, eyes half-lidded, he frowned with his eyebrows. "I never thought I'd see you again."

       "I was hoping the same." Levi snarled. Erwin released the wheel, in a second slapped the handcuff on Levi, and then to the cage behind them, locking the cuff shut, and put his hand back on the wheel.

       "What makes you think I don't have a key you idiot!?" Levi screeched. "You think I'm going to stay? You think I won't lock your ass up?"

       "Yes! I do!" Erwin finally raised his voice. "Levi, please, just listen to me. I can explain if you just give me the chance. Now give me a second."

       "I don't care if you did it or not! I'm not vouching for you!" Levi tugged and jangled at the handcuff. He reached, hand shaking, stumbling to produce a key from his belt. His own handcuffs fell out of the pouch. Reaching around his body with only one hand was a bit difficult, Levi pawed at the cuffs. Erwin snatched them away. Levi reached, and in a second realized his mistake. Hand outstretched to Erwin, he saw the cuff come down on his other wrist. Erwin snapped it back right next to the other cuff Levi's hand was in. Levi pulled violently, and threw his whole body up, contorting his arms in frustration. He was looking at Erwin like the devil was in him. Erwin took a hard turn on the road, heading onto another two lane street. Levi was thrown against his seat, fingertips clutching the cage to keep himself down.

       "Let me go!" Levi commanded, he tugged the cuffs hard.

       "No." Erwin replied. "You aren't listening to me." Erwin returned his hand to straighten the steering wheel, and then went back to grab the key. Levi had his whole body turned to his left, now both his hands cuffed to the cage. He was forced to come closer to the middle of the seats. He shook, and lifted his feet, and kicked at Erwin hard and as well as he could aim.

       "Stop it." Erwin tried to shoulder the blows with his right side, a kick came painfully to his ribs, unable to block with no right arm, but he kept his grip on the wheel. Erwin looked around. Dusk was dark and purple and black with the last faded lights of magenta sunlight. The mountains loomed tall dark shadows in the far distance. Erwin breathed in deep. The desert air was whipping around in the cab of the car, and Erwin was pushing the cruiser as fast as it could go, well over a hundred miles an hour. He glanced back and forth at the shrinking intake building behind him, and the long expanse of road ahead.

       Rural, deep desert America, barely any houses, and one only every couple of miles, way out in the distance. Nothing but dry desert bushes. Levi was jangling the cuffs, and pulling, and ranting, and cussing Erwin's name, and calling him every name Erwin ever heard Levi call a man. Erwin looked to him with his face contorted, as if to apologize in a silent way. But he had no time to focus on it. He looked over the car.

       Erwin had learned a fair bit from Levi about cop cars, and it wasn't his first time inside one, much less stealing one. Erwin touched the trunk radio system in the center console. He placed his arm through the steering wheel, and gripped the antenna. He pulled with all his might to try and snap the little antenna, but it only bent a fair bit.

       "Levi. please, can you take this out?"

       "And why should I do that?"

       "They're going to find this car in no time if this thing stays on." Erwin huffed.

       "Well believe it or not, I'm not in a position to pull the wires out. Some fucker decided to cuff both my hands." Levi snapped.

       "Just kick it in then."

       Levi scrunched his face up. He looked disgusted at Erwin, and said nothing for a while. He did nothing, just glanced between the radio and Erwin. Erwin glanced at Levi, and shook his head, he kept his arm through the wheel, and tried to snap the antenna again. Levi looked back. There was something moving on the receding horizon, blurred by heat lines still coming off the asphalt. Levi knew the same. Everyone at the intake had a reading on where they were. The radio was constantly sending frequencies out. Levi knew his own radio on his body did the same. He gave a growl, and shook his head.

       "Fine." Levi lifted his foot. "Move your hand."

       Erwin let go of the antenna, and placed it back to the wheel. Levi slammed the heel of his boot down into the antenna, and snapped it right where it was bent. He continued kicking, throwing his foot down on the trunk system until bits of plastic was flying off. Erwin reeled back a bit to protect himself. Levi continued until he was panting a bit, cussing a few times before kicking his other foot against the dash.

       "You're gonna make the airbags go." Erwin scolded. "Stop that."

       "I can't believe I'm in this will you again. In this... this shit." Levi huffed between kicking the radio. The screen of it cracked, and the numbers disappeared. Levi put his other foot on the dash, and started kicking the corner.

       "What are you doing?" Erwin glanced briefly at Levi's other foot.

       "The dash cam, idiot." Levi kicked, the dash cam immediately popped off its adhesive cup. Levi watched it fall to the passenger space, and smashed it with his boot. He sighed leaning back towards his cuffed hands.

“1704 do you copy?” a muffled voice was at Levi’s chest. The trunked radio on his chest was up. Levi rolled his eyes, and gave a growl in irritation.

“What the hell do they think they’re doing? If you’re a killer then you’d have already killed me. You keep my radio quiet so you can track my body, you dips.” Levi reprimanded as if someone was actually there to correct. Erwin glanced back at Levi, glancing down at the man’s radio.

“Office 1704 do you copy?”

Levi scowled. “You idiots. Shut up.”

“Do you want me to take care of that?” Erwin turned, glancing in the rear view. There was a blue light on the horizon blinking bright. He swallowed thick, and sat forward in his seat.

“Yes, just, snap the antenna and throw it away. These idiots are pissing me off.”

Erwin released the wheel again, and reached over to Levi’s radio. He pulled it off the breast pocket of the uniform, jerking the coiled wire a little. He breathed a slight apology. Erwin took the black plastic antenna, and curled it in his fist and squeezed until the plastic snapped. Erwin chucked the two pieces out the window.

“There.” Erwin sighed.

The two sat there, Erwin’s heart was starting to hammer less. Erwin floored the pedal. The tires squealed, and there was black clouds that kicked up from the force. Erwin shut one eye and raised his shoulders at the sound. The RPM meter turned almost to its limit before it slowly settled down. Erwin gave a deep sigh, and kept his hand steady on the wheel. For a few good seconds the cab was silent, just the sound of all the glass and broken plastic sliding down on the floor.

       "Five years, five goddamn years and this is how you meet me, huh?" Levi hissed, and looked away, out the passenger side window. There was nothing to look at, no streetlights, so anything past the headlights, just creosote bushes and Mojave yucca. Mustard blue sun was setting behind the mountains. Levi kept his eyes off Erwin, just staring at the desert, wind whipping his hair. "What the hell have you done?”

       "I was doing my job. I didn’t mean to get you caught in this." Erwin leaned his right side towards Levi. "I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am."

       "Then don't." Levi tugged the handcuffs trying to sit up properly. "Just tell me where the hell you’ve been.”

       "Let me get out of here first. And let me get out of this outfit. There’s no way people aren’t going to notice this suit." Erwin gripped the lever under the wheel, and locked it. He released, made sure the car kept straight, and pulled down the collar of the orange jumpsuit. He had no other clothes on underneath other than briefs. He pulled the sleeves off, and tucked it down, shirtless. There was bandages all over his left side, ribcage all bruised in places, and hardened in others. Levi stared. Erwin had knots under the skin of his ribs, evidence of his brittle ribs breaking and healing together stronger. He had cuts, and marks, and a silver tree branch scars around his chest, and on the side of his waist. Deep scars were cut straight, seemed to have been stitched together, right around his hips, down towards his crotch. Red skin was all over his back and shoulders. Levi swallowed, staring at Erwin's body. His mind fired off immediately on what he was looking at. Electrical shocks. Burn scars.

       "I'm gonna get some clothes, get some money, ditch the car, and I'm going back to my hotel."

       "And how do you intend to do all that? We’re kind of stuck."

       "You have a gun, don't you?"

       Levi stared at Erwin. He tugged the handcuffs on his wrists harder.

       "No. I'm not becoming a part of this."

       "We already were a part of this."

       "Yeah but then you bowed out and left the rest of us with our thumbs in our asses." Levi put his foot on the dash and reached down towards the gun. "You got to coward out and leave the rest of us, then I get to do the same!"

       "Well I'm back, and I never meant to leave."

       "Then fucking explain yourself!" Levi screamed, his patients boiled down almost completely. Erwin took a deep breath, and shut his eyes.

       "I know you want to hear it. I want to explain." Erwin hissed. "I'll get there when we do." he sighed, and looked over Levi. He gave a faint smile, but it was gone before Levi could make sure. Erwin looked around.

       "There's no way that the people back there aren't after us. Not after all that." Erwin started. "But, hell, not like people haven't been after us. It's like old times I guess?” Erwin could tell saying those words only caused a sour expression on Levi’s face, so he avoided it. Erwin glanced down at the space between them. There was a long gun handle sticking out. Erwin reached down, and pulled it out. It was a shotgun. He glanced at Levi.

       “Is this loaded?”

“It damn well better be.”

Erwin pulled the shotgun out he set it across his lap. “I’ll keep it on me. They took my revolver. If you want out I’ll do this myself. I’ll be fine. I’ll let you go when I find another car, okay?”

“Like hell I’ll let you do this by yourself. How the hell are you going to rob a store without your prosthetic? I doubt the store owner is going to let you put your gun down and let you take their money. It’s not like stealing cars. You don’t even know where to go, do you?”

“Not really. I figure I’ll find someplace.”

“It’s only desert for the next couple miles.”

“When do we hit town?”

       Levi stared down the street. "About half an hour. I guess ten minutes with the way you're driving. There’s no way we’ll have a lot of time. They’re on our tail. We’ll have to find a place to hide this car when we get there."

       The outskirts of Las Vegas came into sight after a few minutes, a hazy glow of white-yellow lights, slowly forming and filling in lines of buildings. Red and orange and yellow lights. Still so far away. Where they were now was mostly houses, residential area, white fences and trimmed hedges. At night it was still warm, the desert did cool down considerably though. Levi told Erwin to slow down, and where to go. Erwin obeyed. They had made good distance with the other cops, but they had at least five minutes.

Take a turn at the gas station, down towards the strip mall. There was several cars parked out there. A twenty-four hour convenience store. A second-hand thrift store. A bar that had the faintest music coming from the outline of the door. A grocery store, closed just a few minutes ago. A Laundromat, two or three people milling around washing machines inside.

       "Go in the thrift store, it should have clothes at the very least." Levi huffed.

       Erwin pulled into an empty stall, and parked the car, and turned the key in the ignition off. He took the sleeves of the jumpsuit and tied it around his waist. He reached down where he had placed the handcuff key, and leaned over. He looked Levi in the eye. Levi scowled.

       "I'm going to uncuff you. I want you to help me. Okay?"

       "I got it."

       Erwin stared for a moment. He reached forward, and grabbed the gun in Levi's belt. He wrapped his hand around the barrel, and pushed it down, looking inside the chamber. There was a bit of bronze color. Loaded. Erwin placed it in his lap, next to the shotgun, and reached over to uncuff one of Levi's hands. Levi pulled his hand back once it was free. There was some reddish color on his wrist, turning a slight purple. Levi glared down at the gun in Erwin's lap. He didn't reach for it, just holding his other hand up to be uncuffed. Erwin took Levi's forearm, and held firm while he pushed the key into the lock.

       Levi reeled his hand back to his body, rubbing his sore wrists for a few seconds. He gave a deep sigh, eyes shut, brows pinched. For a moment the two just sat there. Erwin did not approach Levi any more, he kept his hand on the guns in his lap. Levi was sinking back in the passenger seat, rubbing his temples with his index and middle finger.

       "I can't fuckin believe this." Levi breathed. "All right. Let's go." He leaned towards Erwin, and snatched the shotgun. “Give me that.”

       "We'll be fast." Erwin replied.

“We don’t have a choice.” Levi huffed. He cocked the shotgun, a loud metal clack let Erwin know.

       The two exited the car. Levi held the shotgun parallel to his leg. Erwin stayed shirtless, his scars were outlined in shadows. The parking lot had only a few streetlamps. Across the street, a station wagon was stopped at a red light. No one was around, so the station wagon pushed right through the light. A dog barked in the distance. Erwin took a deep breath. He clicked the safety off the gun.

       "Take the cuffs, please." Erwin spoke. "In case we need to use them."

       Levi took the cuffs, but he didn't say anything to Erwin as he did. He tucked them onto his belt, and adjusted his uniform.

       "You became a captain?" Erwin pointed at the two gold bars on Levi's uniform.

       "Yeah. I quit gang specialist a long time ago." Levi huffed.

       Erwin nodded. They looked at each other, still, and shifted away from the car doors. Erwin walked up to the thrift store. Levi opened the door for him. Erwin walked in. Clothes went for the first couple of rows. Snacks decorating the counter areas, a refrigerator with drinks hummed. A small section of travel sized items, sanitizes, bandages, aspirin bottles, shampoo and conditioners. There was a shorter teenage boy sitting behind the cash register, digging under his fingernails with a pen tip. He glanced up, and stared at Erwin. Erwin held the gun at the boy.

       "Wh-"

       "Hands on your head." Erwin ordered.

       The boy threw his hands up, palms out, and put them back down on his curly hair. He was trembling, a string of shaky cuss words. "Fuck man, just, fuck."

       "Step back." Erwin barked. The boy nearly jumped back from the register.

       "Oh-okay, yeah, okay."

       Levi glanced at Erwin, and back at the boy.

       "Levi check under the cash register."

       "Fine." Levi huffed. He came forward, and Erwin did too, closing in on the boy. He was trembling, nearly about to fall to his knees. Face flushed red. He pressed his back to the wall when Levi slid over the counter, and entered the little standing space. He held the shotgun in one hand, the boy had his eyes locked on it, trembling even worse. Levi squatted, and looked under the counter.

       "Is there another gun?" Erwin asked.

       Levi looked around, glancing underneath. There was coupon books and balled up recites in an overflowing trash bin. Under the top of the shelf was another nine millimeter.

       "Yeah. I got it." Levi pulled the gun out of the holster, and peeled the tape off of it. He glanced forward, and then behind. Levi cocked the gun, checking the chamber. "It's hot." He said, showing Erwin the bullet inside. Erwin stood still, arm extended, gun held at the boy. Levi stood back up, and looked over the boy.

       "Step away from there." Levi pointed to the side with the gun. The boy slid himself in that direction, not blinking, breath shaking on his lips. Levi checked the area behind the boy. There was a telephone, but it hadn't been touched. There was another button down under the desk. Levi looked over it.

       "There's a silent alarm button in here." Levi mentioned. "He didn't press it."

       Erwin nodded. He lowered the gun. "Keep him there. I'll put something on." He turned towards the men's clothing aisle as he said so.

       Levi turned the safety off, and cocked the gun. The boy let out a yelp, he flinched back from Levi. Levi pushed the gun into the boy's forehead. He still kept the shotgun down.

       "Get on the ground." he hissed. "Do anything funny and the birds will be pecking at your body parts all over the desert."

       The boy's legs buckled. He nearly threw himself into the floor. Hands still on his head, he laid flat on his stomach, more cuss words. Levi followed him down with the gun. He looked over the boy.

       "Hey. Where's the key for the register?"

       "Oh, uh." the boy shut his eyes tight, face all screwed up. "My, my pocket. I it's-" He shook when he released his hand from the back of his head, and pointed to his left jean pocket.

       "Hands on your head."

       "Ye-yes, yes sir." he mumbled. His hands were back on his head. Levi leaned in, and put his hand in the boy's pocket. He produced the key, and turned it in his hand. He stood up, and pushed the key in the register, and twisted it to the right. The drawer popped open. There was a few dollar bills, some fives, a twenty. Levi scoffed. He pulled the bills out of the drawer, then lifted the black compartment organizing the money. Underneath was a couple of coin tubes, and a whole bundle of twenty dollar bills, as well as a couple of fifties. Levi placed the money in his pocket, and stuffed the bundles in as well. The boy wasn't even watching, petrified, and still breathing erratically.

       Levi sat on the counter, clicked the safety off, and spun the gun on his finger. Erwin came back, adjusting the shirt he had put on. He was wearing a dress shirt, black slacks that were a little wrinkled, and had on a new pair of shoes. He also had a cashmere sweater slung over his right shoulder. He had a comb tucked in the pocket, and he clearly had spent time slicking his hair to the side as he usually wore it.

       "Can you stop dicking around?" Levi hissed. "I got the cash."

       "All right." Erwin came forward, holding his gun down. "Kid."

       "Y-yes sir?" the boy stuttered.

       "You have car keys?"

       "I... I don't drive sir." the boy stated. "I, I, I'm sorry, I-"

       "Do you sell bats here?" Erwin pressed on.

       "Ah, uh, by the toys and the sports stuff, I, I'm sure.."

       "Thank you." Erwin walked back into the store, and started heading to the toys and sports equipment aisle.

       "Get a first aid kit too, for your face. There's some medicine stuff that way." Levi pointed with the gun towards the back of the store. Erwin turned slight to give him a nod. He went to the back, stopping by the woman's apparel and pulling a large tote bag. He shoved the sweater in it. Then he went to the medicines. He grabs some bandages, bruise ointment, aspirin, and even some cough medicine and a few other bottles. Erwin walked back to the toy section, and picked up a wooden baseball bat. He tucked the gun in his pocket, and held the bat firm. He gave a swing.

       "Hurry your ass up." Levi shouted. "Or you and I are both going to be in that stupid orange jumpsuits.."

       "I doubt they’d lock you up.." Erwin remarked, and came towards the front. "I'm ready, let's go."

       "All right." Levi opened the door again. The boy was still face down on the floor. Erwin walked past. Levi touched his shoulder, and pointed to the tote bag. Erwin handed over the bag, and held the baseball bat freely in his left hand.

       "Thank you honey."

       "Shut up."

       Erwin gave a small smile. He looked around at the parking lot at the cars scattered around. Loud music was thumping in the bar two doors down. Erwin sighed.

       "Which car do you like?" he asked.

       "Does it matter?" Levi returned.

       "I suppose not." Erwin replied. "That one's the fastest." He gestured with the bat towards a car in front of the bar.

       "You are the expert on cars." Levi replied. “Just hurry up.”

       Erwin walked toward the car. It was a boxy looking Volvo, and Levi wouldn't have picked it, but he figured he didn't know much about cars, much less cared. Erwin placed the end of the bat on the pavement. He swung with his arm a little.

       "This will be a little difficult without my prosthetic." He mumbled. Erwin lifted the bat around his back, touching his right shoulder. Then he swung around and down, hard, full force on the driver side window. The crash was fantastical in how the whole window shattered and fell apart, but not nearly as loud as the car alarm as it started to wail. He dropped the bat, reached inside, and pulled the door lock open. Erwin dusted the driver seat off from the glass, and leaned in. He pulled a panel out from above the pedals. There was an assortment of wires. Levi watched from a distance. He looked around. Seemed the people in the bar weren't exactly phased, padded walls kept the sound out. The boy in the thrift store was nowhere to be seen, Levi had a feeling he was still on the floor. The people in the Laundromat seemed to have noticed, but it must not have been their car. None of them paid much attention. Across the street there was a few people staring in their direction. It was too far to see their facial expression, but soon they just turned away, and returned to what they were doing. If it wasn't their car, it wasn't their problem.

       The engine roared, the car alarm ceased, and Erwin sat down, and shut the driver door. Levi came forward and climbed inside, sitting in the passenger seat, and leaned back. He set the shotgun in between them, and clicked the saftey on. Erwin pulled the car out, looking around, and reversing.

       "Guess we got lucky. This is a good car. Goes about zero to sixty in seven seconds."

       "That's great. Now tell me where the fuck you've been."

       Erwin nodded. "All right, I will."

       He glanced down, and sighed.

       "Look I know we had a bit of a falling out all that time ago." He mumbled. "That wasn't why I left. Okay? I want you to know that."

       Levi didn't say anything. Erwin could only tell after knowing Levi for so long, but Levi just slightly leaned his head back. His expression cooled ten degrees. Erwin could only be grateful for that.

       "I know you thought I didn't care, I know you were mad, I know what I did was... it was wrong. I know. I couldn't find the right words. I..." Erwin sighed. "I do care. I know it was... unconventional. But we both knew that. Hanji and Mike and Nanaba knew that. How are they? Are they okay? Are they alive?"

       "I'll tell you when you're done." Levi hissed.

       Erwin nodded. He pulled out into the street, and started heading into the strip. He took a deep breath. "All right. I'll get the main thing out of the way. I was in Italy. It was a few cars to round up. Ferrari, Lamborghini, a Maserati. Well, the Maserati was easy and the Lamborghini. The woman with the last one was difficult... and she was on to me. So I was spending some time with her. A lot of time."

       "Between her legs, specifically." there's a snarl in Levi's voice that makes Erwin cringe a little. He looked forward.

       "All right, you're not wrong." Erwin agreed. "You know, back then, I wasn't going to tell you, but I felt I should have. I didn't know you... would be so upset."

       Levi turned his whole body to look at Erwin. Erwin knew he had definitely said the wrong thing, so all he could do was wait for the backlash. He was somewhat tensing up already.

       "You didn't think I'd be upset?" Levi shouted. "You just-- you--" Levi's face was almost pink, turning reddish. "No, you're right. Why the fuck would I be upset?" Levi threw his arms up. "I guess we're all just your fuck buddies aren't we? If you weren't so used to sitting around on your pathetic ass driving fancy cars you'd certainly be whoring yourself out. You’re so handsome why wouldn’t everyone be fucking you? I’m _so_ sorry I didn’t appreciate you fucking some man’s wife!"

       "Maybe if you weren't so cryptic all the time, I could tell whether or not we were even _in_ a relationship."

       "Oh, _fuck off_!" Levi shoved Erwin hard towards the side. He remembered for a second Erwin’s bruises, and saw him recoil at the harsh push. Levi just scowled, he was red in the face, only more and more irate.. "It's not my fault you can't figure out basic shit."

       "Look, this is why I couldn't even understand you. You always get this way." Erwin was raising his voice, and his patience thinned. "You get upset whenever I don't read something right, and then instead of telling me what I did; you just lose it!" He exhaled harsh, Levi scoffed just as loud. Erwin leaned against the wheel. He took another deep breath. His right side throbbed a little from Levi's jab, but he wasn't about to complain about it. "I don’t want to argue right now. Please. Just let me finish what I have to say." Erwin sighed.

       "Fine. Go ahead." Levi waved his hand. They didn't look at each other.

       "Thank you." Erwin slowed the car a bit. They were getting closer to city, and the skyline of large buildings, hotels, skyscrapers, were all lighting the horizon in the distance. More cars were appearing ahead, so Erwin kept the speed consistent. He rolled down the passenger window. He sighed. "I have no idea why, and to this day, but that woman promised me the car, so she told me to meet her down by the beach." Erwin glanced down at himself. "So I went down there that night. She came with the car. I came with the Lamborghini. She asked if we could take a walk down at the beach. Next thing I knew I woke up on the shoreline of Costa Viola with a black eye, bruises and broken skin and bloody, and all my things gone. Passport, gun, money, hell, even my watch." Erwin shook his head. "I thought she did it, but when I came back the Lamborghini was gone too. So someone must've been with her."

       Levi gave a side glance to Erwin. He stared down at the floor of the car. "So... how did that happen?"

       Erwin gave a laugh, though it wasn't a happy one, just out of exclamation. "That's the question isn't it? I never found those cars. I never found the woman. I didn’t even find my things. You can imagine my boss was pissed. And Nile didn't even throw me a bone. I called him after scrounging some money up. I would've called you, but I didn't have any money for it. I didn't have my wallet, so I couldn't pull my cards, I couldn't pay for a call to the bank to freeze my account. I wasn't surprised that all the money was gone when I finally got to it." Erwin sighed. He swallowed, his throat was getting dry. "It just got worse. I needed money, I was desperate. I knew I was a known criminal around Europe, but I couldn't do anything about it. I guess word spread, some older man heard about some American looking for a few bucks. That's when I started transporting. I was still driving again, now just with a lot more stuff in the car. Sometimes drugs, sometimes weapons, sometimes people-- living people. Never dead people."

       "You were selling people?"

       "God, no. I.. well, I don't know. They told me two things. One, don't ask questions, two, get there on time. That's all I did. What they did with the people I don't know." Erwin sighed. "I wasn’t getting money. The man paid me with food and a place to stay, I couldn't complain. But he didn't want me making phone calls. Didn't want me getting a credit card. He bought things for me. He was suspicious of me I guess. He didn't trust me. It had to have been at least six months before he finally paid me with money. It took about another month for me to even buy a phone that could call out of country... The guy was real old school."

       Erwin felt the car slow to a stop as he watched a red light in the distance. There was dotted red lines of car lights. Noise outside was heavier, more people walking around, drunks stumbling around in the evening air. The bruise under his eye made a very dark patch of skin. He looked tired, and worn, and much older. Levi stared at him, at the injuries and down at the dress shirt, thinking of all the things marking Erwin's body.

       "What about the scars? Where did all that come from?"

       "That's... later. A longer story." He paused, looked down at himself, then back up. "I don't want to talk about it. Not right now."

       He turned down the Las Vegas strip, the smell of smoke was coming through the car and the air was starting to get hotter again, not from the desert but just the pure heat of a sleepless, crazy town. Erwin looked to Levi.

"When I finally called the banks, as you can tell, I didn't have any money. I had to file bankruptcy over the phone, not that it mattered. If I lost my house it wasn't like I had been there for almost half a year anyway. Afterwards, I called you... I wanted to explain myself. But you never picked up. I called Mike too. Nothing. I couldn't remember anyone else's numbers. Those phones weren't even in use anymore. Nile answered but he still wouldn’t help me. Not after I told him what I was doing.” Erwin glanced down at Levi. “I... I thought the worst. I didn’t even know you were alive until... well, until this morning. I thought I had died.” Erwin shook his head. “I can’t explain how happy I was, but now’s not the time. I know. I just... what happened? Why did you guys change your phone numbers? When I came back to the U.S. none of you were in your old houses either. I went everywhere.”

       Erwin’s stare bore holes in Levi, even if he didn’t realize it. Levi couldn’t look at Erwin. He turned away again. Levi scanned the streets, watching the hundreds of people that must've been walking around down the sidewalks, across the road. He leaned back.

       "We think we got set up. It was a while ago. We almost lost Nanaba... It was a mess. Mike was already pulling out of it, he couldn't forgive what happened to her. Hanji wanted to make sure we'd all be safe. Made us change our phone numbers and even made new I.D cards. Then Hanji said we should move. All of us. And just go our separate ways. Try to let the heat die down." Levi ran his fingers through his hair. "Mike took Nanaba and their kids up to Canada. I guess that's where he wanted to be. Hanji... well, fuck, I don't know where Hanji went. Said something about going into hacking and programming and then they just disappeared. I guess that was the plan."'

       "And you? How'd you end up here?"

       "Ah, I just stuck in Chicago for a few months before I got sick of it. I sold a lot of shit, and I moved through departments. They were pinging me all over the fuckin place. I got put out here to train some newbie cops. Kids, basically. Then you came along. I've been here for less than a year... eight months I guess."

       "What happened, what do you mean you guys got set up?"

       "We still don't know. It was just a heist gone bad. We got swarmed with cops, and swat, and the whole nine yards. We almost died that day. It was a rural town too, so it didn’t make sense. Hanji said they wondered if it had anything to do with you disappearing, but she never connected it. When we got out of it alive we had to take care of Nanaba. We really had to play it all down. Just go back to nothing. It drove us nuts, but what could I do? I almost got someone killed, and you were just gone from the face of the earth. We couldn't keep robbing banks and stealing cars forever." Levi leaned back in his seat. "You know, there was a moment there where we thought you were the one who set us up."

       "What? Why would you think that?"

       "Well what were we supposed to think?" Levi scoffed. "You and Mike were the only ones with the bad connections. Mike had to dodge some bullets before he left, so it was kind of obvious it wasn't him."

       Erwin shook his head, he leaned in towards the steering wheel and took in some air. The night was hot and the air felt stale and dry. Nothing that could clear Erwin's head.

       "I have to fix this. I never meant for this to happen." Erwin said. "It's good to hear though. I've been all over the country, hoping I could find you guys. Nothing. I couldn't even find newspaper articles... I really thought you guys were dead, but I couldn't find obituaries or anything."

       "Well, here we are. Back in the same situation. Except now you're knee deep in shit and even if I wanted to throw you a bone I can't."

       "I know. I'm sorry I dragged you into this."

       "I can opt out at any time."

       "You aren't going to though."

       Levi grinded his teeth when Erwin said so. He leaned back, arms folded. "Of course I won’t. You owe me so much more than this piss poor explanation."

       "I know." Erwin sighed.

       The I-15 was a bit busier this time of year with all the Spring break college students and tourists littering all over the place. Erwin pulled off towards a cluster of hotel areas. Buildings came up and down so quickly while others seemed to stay forever. The road had a diner, a deli, a liquor store, and a pawn shop. All open, dim lights and mingling locals that had to dodge the huge tourist alleys just to get there. Erwin drove up on a vacant lot at the end of the road. He drove in, and put the car in park.

       "Let's leave it here. The hotel is only a couple blocks away."

       "...All right." Levi gathered the things they had taken, and shut the car door. He approached Erwin, and glanced up. Erwin exited the vacant lot, casual, overtly confident. Down the sidewalk and a block around was a little nesting place of large casino hotels. A large one with the word "Flamingo" in big pink letters was across the street. The place was noisy and busy with people driving and walking in and out. Erwin was patient, waiting for the good time to cross the street, and stood close to Levi when they did. Levi sighed slight, and kept looking forward.

       "So what's your plan? You're usually full of those."

       Erwin didn't look back. "Well, I'm not sure how I can do it, but I'm going to prove I'm innocent. At least in this case."

       "Why does it even matter? You've hurt people. Took their money. Took their things. Hell, we just did it a few minutes ago. What does murder make a difference on the big list of fuck ups?"

       "I told you I'd get us out of this game, but all I ended up doing was screwing you all over. I'm not going to jail until I can at least pay you all back."

       "You think that's what I want? You to pay me back?"

       Erwin stopped dead in his tracks. Levi stopped as well, standing at the edge of the sidewalk. He turned, and looked down at Levi with his eyebrows pinched. Erwin stared for a good second, so Levi returned the gaze. Some people made sure to stay clear of them. There was quite a violent look when the two were like that.

       "Well, I've apologize. I don't expect you to forgive me, I just want you to know I really am sorry. I told you what happened. At least when I disappeared. I'll admit I didn't give you a chance to get out of this situation but you didn't give me a lot of options. You keep saying I owe you an explanation and I owe you a ton of other shit. So how do you expect me to pay you back? Huh?" Erwin didn't sound like his usual self. Despite everything they went through Erwin had always been very lenient with Levi, overly kind, overly selfless, in ways that Levi did not know how to deal with. His words are stinging, Levi knows Erwin has changed, he couldn't have expected him to not have. Levi himself wasn't sure what to feel when he first saw Erwin that morning, again, after all those years. He doesn't know what to believe. Doesn't know who to trust, or what to say. Levi didn't know what to tell Erwin. He stared for a long moment. Then he gave a sharp exhale and looked away from Erwin.

       "I don't know. I just don't know." Levi's tone dropped while he spoke. He seemed genuinely confused. The way his voice dropped, it seem to click in Erwin. His gaze was a bit softer. A bit more humbled. He took in a deep breath, and leaned on the crosswalk pole.

       "Everything's happening really fast." Erwin said in a low tone. "Then again, it's always been that way for us. Look. I'm gonna make some phone calls. I'm going to go up to my hotel room. I'm going to take a large painkiller, and we're going to rest for the night." Erwin touched his forehead for a moment, and turned back towards the hotel. Levi followed along as they made their way inside.

       "What makes you think they won’t find us here?" Levi asked, holding the tote bag to his body.

       "They’re not going to make connections to the me that broke out of jail to the me staying at this hotel."

“How do you mean?”

“You’ll see.”

       The sun had only just set a few minutes ago, and the lobby bar was already filling in. People were fiddling around with slot machines and watching other gamblers with their drink in one hand, almost never leaving their face. Sleek marble tiles and countertops, the smell of disinfectant and plastic palm trees. A refuge for all the horrid things in the world, for all the cheapest denominators in a big spender town. Perhaps it was fitting after all. Levi folded his arms, and followed behind.

       There's a long row of front desk women sitting behind computers. She put on a very practiced smile, and stood up to greet him.

       "Hello. Can I help you?" Her cheery voice is enough to make Levi recoil, but he knows the trade, so he says nothing of her.

       "Ah, I apologize for bothering you." Erwin replied. "Believe it or not, I got attacked in a bar. Almost got a black eye." Erwin gestured to the bruise under his eye he had received from the car crash. The woman knit her brows, a feigned sort of sympathy. She already knew he was asking for something, and Erwin knew she was aware. He doesn't bullshit her.

       "My wallet was taken." he explained. "I've lost the key to my room."

       "Ah." The woman nodded. "And your name is?"

       "Yuri Glinskaya."

       It takes Levi a second to realize he better not make a face. He glanced at Erwin for a second regardless, and raised a brow. The woman doesn’t seem to notice. Levi just watches. The woman types in the name. She looked up.

       "Your I.D.?"

       "Ah... with the wallet."

       "Oh, right." the woman looked down. "Well... you're not supposed to get another key without your I.D."

       "Yes, I know. I hate to inconvenience you. I came here by myself and, I just want to get my things. I don’t know what to say other than... well, I got unlucky." Erwin leaned in a little. "Can you do me that favor?" He gave a small smile.

       "I... I suppose." she looked down. "Can you tell me your room number and birthday at least?" Levi gave her credit for trying to double check. Erwin nodded with his same vapid smile.

       "December 25th. Room 12-37."

       "Very well." she mumbled. She typed a few things, and took a stack of plastic cards, and slid it into a small machine at her side. The machine whirred, and clicked. The light flashed green. She pulled the key card out, and wrote 1237 on the back. "Here you are, sir."

       "Thank you." Erwin gave her a warm smile. "You've been a dear."

       The woman gave a small smile, not very genuine, not exactly fake. It seemed to be an acknowledgement.  She put her hand back on the keyboard, and looked to Levi. She put on the automatic smile again. “Can I help you?”

Erwin walked right past Levi, as if he didn’t know him. Levi caught on. He glanced back, looking at the lobby. He stood there for a moment, and glanced at the woman. “Do you know if the pool is open?” He asked casually.

“The Go Pool isn’t open this season.” she replied. “The Beach Club pool is open Sunday to Thursday, nine to five. And Friday, Saturday, nine to six.” She tilted her head. Levi gave a just as fake smile.

“Thank you.” he walked away casually. The woman sat down, and lost the fake expression.

Erwin beckoned Levi towards the elevator. He passed between the little lobby stores, the coffee shop, the little sandwich shop, a gift shop with a long pair of legs in heels hanging beside the door advertising a peep show.

       "Want anything to eat?" Erwin asked.

       "No. I want to get out of here." Levi huffed. "You kidnapped me, you can at least take me somewhere better than this shithole. I hate this tourist crap"

       "I thought the term we agreed on was 'along for the ride'."

       "Maybe seven years ago when I thought this was amusing. Not today."

       Erwin blinked, and nodded. He pressed the elevator button. He didn't look back at Levi, so Levi didn't know what his expression was. Levi folded his arms. A family exited the elevator, two parents and their ‘barely in their tween years’ children. They darted around Levi and Erwin like they didn't exist, didn't dare look them in the eye, children chattering about food to eat and candies and stores they wanted to go to. Erwin walked in, and Levi followed. Thankfully the elevator didn't stop. It was just the two of them.

       Levi followed down the hall, looking down at the room card when Erwin pulled it back out of his pocket. Levi glanced up at Erwin. "What was that all about, anyway?"

       "Huh?"

       "The name. Yuri Glinskaya?" Levi tilted his head.

       "Ah. I was running by that name in Russia for a little while. Most of them thought it was a joke so it-"

       "You were in Russia?"

       "Most of the time." Erwin shrugged. "It came and went. When you're relying on the kindness of criminals you have to change your name to stay safe."

       "What criminals? What are you talking about?"

       "Who do you think I was transporting for?" Erwin asked. "Italy was mostly mobsters. Russian mafia was a little different. It doesn't matter."

       "Woah, wait a minute-"

       "Look, I'll get there when we get there. Let's just relax." Erwin pushed the keycard into the door. Held for a second, and pulled back. The doorknob flashed green. Erwin opened the door. There's a short hallway, and inside is a large queen-sized bed, a couch by the sliding glass door to the balcony. There's a couple of luggage cases by the couch, a shirt laid on the table beside it. Erwin sat at the edge of the bed, and pulled off the shoes on his feet. He took a deep breath, and shut his eyes. Erwin rubbed his temple a bit, and stood up. He grabbed a suitcase at the foot of the couch, and fished around. Levi could hear the rustling of papers and plastic bags before Erwin pulled out a bottle of pills. White little pills; he pulled two of them out, and set the bottle away.

       "Vicodin?"

       Erwin turned his head. "Yeah, I've been getting migraines since the car crash."

       "You only crashed this morning."

       "Not that crash."

       "You were in another car crash?"

       Erwin nodded, and then shrugged.

       "It was nothing. I just feel like this morning's one really messed my head up again."

       "Did they even evaluate you for a head injury this morning?"

       "I think so, but I didn't exactly get the results." Erwin touched the back of his head. He walked over towards another suitcase, and pulled out a bottle of water. He broke the seal, and took a long drink, then he took the Vicodin, and drank again. He shut his eyes tight.

       Levi sat himself on the opposite end of the bed. He stared at Erwin for a long time, enough for the blond to notice the silence, and turned around.

       "God, What did you just get me into?" Levi huffed.

       "Nothing we haven't been in before."

       "Stop acting like it's before."

       Erwin shifted back, he turned on the bed, and sat beside Levi. Levi set the tote bag on the night stand. There was a faint glimmer in Erwin's eyes that Levi picked up on. He didn't return the gaze. He sat down, and kicked his boots off.

       "You did feel it, didn't you?" Erwin asked in a low tone, as if this was something dangerous to ask. "The rush."

       Levi turned around, and faced Erwin. He slid his legs up onto the bed, and came right up to Erwin. Erwin was looking at him like he was golden and gemstone, and something precious. Levi shifted, leaning close to Erwin. Their faces were only inches apart. Levi reached his left hand out. Erwin had his eyes cast down, half-lidded, looking over Levi. Levi's hand settled on the back of his neck. Then it was on the back of his head, fingers curled and clutching Erwin's hair before yanking it back hard. Levi was right in Erwin's face, breaths mingling.

       "I wasn't feeling very much of a rush when you _tasered_ my goddamn neck." Levi hissed. He released Erwin, and Erwin went to touching the back of his head, nursing the spot where Levi had tugged.

       "Right, right. I'm sorry about that."

       "Much less using my body as a fuckin shield." Levi barked. "You weren't trying to bring me, you just wanted to escape. If those idiots at the station had the right mind to shoot you they would've killed me. The only rush I was feeling was the rush to break your neck as fast as possible!" He scoffed, turning away from Erwin. Erwin only looked somewhat shocked, somewhat ashamed. He doesn't say anything to argue with Levi.

       "You just waltz into my life after five years and expect me to be okay with it? I thought you were dead. I thought you abandon us. I- I was--" Levi faltered, his words fell apart in his throat, and he stood up, walking away from the bed.

       "I'm taking a bath. Leave me alone." Levi turned away, pulling off his shirt as he did so. Erwin noted the tattoo on Levi's shoulder was still there, and then the sliding door to the bathroom shut. Something in Erwin wanted to call out, he wanted to sit down and talk rationally. He wanted Levi to hear him out, but he heard Levi's words, and he couldn't find anything to dispute the claim. Levi had every right to be upset. Erwin agreed with that. He knew better than anyone else how to handle it. So he stayed on the bed, just listening to the silence in the room.

       Erwin sighed, and leaned back into the bed. His face was etched with worn lines along his forehead. Body aching, he thought a little about the vicodin, and hoping it would kick in soon. He thought a bit about the car chase, the smoking car. The drugs that he was transporting. The body stashed in the trunk. A woman he had never met. About the last five years. He wondered if he could replay the joy of seeing Levi again, smearing a pool of blood along the desert floor, crawling on his knees and betting on death. Erwin saw Levi outlined by at least half a dozen other people, all dressed the same. The sun above, blotted them out with shadows. Erwin couldn't think of any other faces than Levi's. It had been that way all day. It had been that way for five years.

       "I guess you're my good luck charm." Erwin mumbled towards the ceiling. There was a small smile lingering there when he said it. No response. The sound of shower spray comes faintly from the bathroom. Erwin turned on the TV. A loud argument comes on, some TV drama about housewives. He glanced to the side, looking down at Levi's cop uniform. Erwin shifted in bed.

       "Or maybe I'm just your bad luck." No answer. Erwin's sure he wouldn't have wanted one. He noticed a dulling feeling in his limbs, and curls himself in the crisp hotel bedding. The TV is loud and jarring, and Erwin lets it go, the white noise compliments the buzzing in his head. For the first time in five years, he doesn't sleep with a gun under his pillow. Body feeling heavy, eyes shut, Erwin certainly did not feel safety in Levi's presence. Instead, he felt, if anything bad were to happen to him, it would be at Levi's hands. And Erwin decided, that if that was the case, he would surely deserve it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, and thank you for your kudos or comments, it means a lot to me.


	3. Chapter 3

Waking up is slow, the light is thin and faint around the horizon, and the sky is just barely warming its colors. The air feels cool, and dry. Erwin can barely think; his head feels full of cotton. He touches there a moment. His body ached, and the painkiller was long gone in his body. Erwin turned in his bed. It was empty. The uniform was not on the ground. A part of him wondered if Levi had left, another part couldn't really blame him. He shifted, and looked to his luggage.

            Levi was laying on the couch. He was stretched out, legs up on the armrest. It seemed he had gotten a change of clothes. He was in a black shirt, and long jeans that came to his ankles. His eyes are open, and he was scanning a newspaper, holding it above his head. Propped up beside the couch was a backpack. There was an umbrella and flashlight sticking out of the side holder. Erwin stared for a few moments, piecing it all together. Levi was wearing glasses with thin turtle shell colored frames. After a few moments, Levi folded the paper, and tossed at Erwin. Erwin stumbled to reach out and catch it.

            "We're in there." Levi remarked. "Not front page stuff. Just a small paragraph in the crime section."

            "You went shopping I see." Erwin slid his legs off the bed, and sat upright. His vision faded, and turned black for a few seconds. He saw images and stars behinds his eyelids, and brought his hands to his head. It wasn't as painful as he thought it was, but it was certainly uncomfortable.

            "You need to get your head checked. You could have a concussion for all we know."

            "If it was that bad I'm sure I would have noticed."

            "Or you'd already be in a coma, at the very least."

            Erwin blinked the stars out of his vision when it started to clear. Levi was still sitting there. He took the paper Levi had tossed at him, and opened the crime section. There was a lot more articles. Someone caught cheating in gambling. A man who had shot and killed his family. An update on the trial about an apparent $500 million dollars’ worth of coke being smuggled in through an ambulance. The town was so crazy and the most recent events this month seemed to dwarf Erwin’s own crimes in comparison. Erwin eventually found his own article.

            At the front was the mugshot of Erwin the day before. It certainly wasn’t a very nice picture, but Erwin didn’t say anything of it. “Police captain taken hostage by escaped inmate after stealing cop car. Suspect is male, mid-forties, blond, blue eyes, approx. six feet tall. Two-hundred pounds. Identified self as Erwin Smith. On trial for murder and drug possession. Suspect is believed to be armed and dangerous. Suspect can be identified with right arm missing up to above his elbow. Has taken a man by the name Levi Ackerman. 43, black hair, grey eyes, 5'3", 143 lbs. If seen, contact LVMPD or call 911 for emergency dispatch.”

            "This isn't very much." Erwin remarked. “They didn’t even find the cop car.”

            “They probably have. They just made the report too quickly.” Levi replied. “Regardless, your face is in there. This is going to be harder because of that.”

            “What is going to be harder?”

            “Leaving this place. We can’t stay here.” Levi spoke. “Not with your picture up in the paper. That’s too risky.”

            “Then where do we go?”

            “Where are you even supposed to be, Erwin?”

            Erwin brought his hand to his head, where the pain was throbbing. He thought about it for a moment. Where was he supposed to be? After what happened yesterday, Erwin couldn’t tell.

            “I’m not sure… I’ve been living like this for a while. I take what I get.” He massaged his temples with his thumb and index finger, eyebrows beetled. “When there’s no work… there’s no work. And I’m sure now that I’ve got some heat on me I’m not going to be getting phone calls from anyone.”

            Levi sighed, and shrugged his shoulders. It was no indication of what he was thinking, he turned, walking to the curtains covering the sliding door to the balcony. He threw them open. Erwin shielded his eyes from the light.

            “Ow…” Erwin touched his head again, groaning a bit as his eyes adjusted under the cover of his hand. Levi gazed out over the view they had. It was situated somewhere in the middle, and there was a view of the pool, all the palm trees, and the skyscrapers in the distance that dwarfed their own annex. Sunlight was bright, the sky was blue and strong. It was a hot day, and the sun would be beating down on everyone.

            “All right, well, you must live somewhere right?”

            Once Erwin’s eyes adjusted, and his headache subsided enough, he gazed up at Levi, a looming figure in black looking out on that crystal blue sky.

            “Not really.” Erwin admitted. “I live out of these suitcases. It’s a little hard to buy a home when you don’t have an ID, social security number, license, birth certificate, or even a credit card to your name.”

            “That’s a bit of an expensive life, don’t you think? Buying hotels all over the place.”

            “I never said I was buying up hotel rooms.”

            “Even if it’s a motel, it’s expensive shucking out thirty bucks a night just to rest your head.”

            “I don’t typically sleep in a bed, Levi.” Erwin returned. Levi turned his head. The room was dark, and his face was shaded sharply, so Erwin could see his features. The way his forehead creased, and his eyes narrowed and eyebrows knit. Levi opened his mouth to say something, and then shut it, as if he’d already figured out his question’s answer.

            “You’ve just been sleeping in the cars you steal?”

            “Usually.” Erwin replied. “You learn how to sleep sitting up.”

            “Christ, what the hell have you been doing…” Levi muttered and trailed off. He stepped away, and leaned on the glass. “All right.” He put his forearm up horizontally on the glass, and half-turned to Erwin again. “All right, give me some fucking answers. Twenty questions. No avoiding, no ‘it’s complicated’, no excuses, no bullshit.”

            Erwin squared his shoulders, as if to say he was ready.

            “Where have you been?”

            Erwin sighed. He glanced to the right, staring at the headboard as if he wrote the answers there. Then he shut his eyes for a moment, and glanced back up. “Bismarck, North Dakota, for the drug trade, before that, Calgary, Alberta, for the car, before that, Ann Arbor, Michigan, for the registration plate and the deal set up. That’s just for this one. It ended here, Las Vegas. I had no plan past that.”

            “So long story short you’ve been all over the place.” Levi said.  
            “Yeah. That’s the best way to put it. All I can do is follow the money.”

            Levi nodded, and turned back to look out the glass door. “Okay. Did you ever find out what happened to the woman and your money?”

            “Not a clue. And the money is gone. They spent it over time. Cars, withdrawals, hell I don’t know what they were doing. The bank said I’d gone bankrupt before I even contacted them months after the fact. She’s probably living it up somewhere.”

            “Who sent you on that job?”

            “Nile. Who else?”

            “All right. Who sent you on this one?”

            “Nile.”

            Levi snapped his head around, and pulled away from the door. He walked forward, and gripped the top of the couch, leaning forward. “You still work for that fucker?”

            “Well, it’s not like I’ve got a lot of options for employment, Levi.” Erwin sighed. “I never should’ve gotten into this. I should’ve just sat back and collected veteran disability.”

            “Well too late now. Where is Nile?”

            “California. Same shithole, Long Beach.” Erwin sighed. “I haven’t actually seen him. Just his ‘associates’. Since his bratty kids got into high school he’s been dealing with me a whole lot less. He doesn’t talk to me.”

            “Well then, lets pay the asshole a visit.”

            “Are you suggesting we just go over to Long Beach?” Erwin clutched his arm stump.

            “That bitch almost got you killed. On multiple occasions. And he fucked you over, which in turn fucked us over. All of us got fucked. He has it coming.”

            “Levi, Nile gets five death threats a day, you think he’s not constantly packing heat with guards around him all the time?”

            “I don’t give a fuck. He owes us. He owes you.” Levi snapped. His fingernails were digging into the couch. “We had something good going. All five of us. And now look at us. We don’t even know what we’ve been doing for the past five years. And now here you are, on the run with a hostage, set up for your own death, hiding out in some tourist hotel—I don’t fucking care how we do it, I don’t care if you even want to do it, I’m paying that fuck a visit!”

            “All right, all right.” Erwin covered his forehead with his whole palm, fingers in his hair. Part of him was wondering if he really did need his head to get checked out. “I’m not letting you do that alone. It’s suicide—”

            “Oh yeah, that notion really bothered me before.”

            “Levi.” Erwin shifted up. “I just found you. I’m not about to lose you again.”

            Levi didn’t respond at first, thinking on the fact of what Erwin had just said. He narrowed his eyes a bit, and shifted back. “The only reason we’re together is because of shit like this. We changed. I changed. You changed. The thing that tore us all apart was shit like this. If anything, I’m going to have a word with that fucker and end this shit once and for all.”

            “Does that seem like a good idea? Is that what you want?”

            Levi was still staring, narrow eyes, gaze following Erwin. He scoffed. Erwin felt uncomfortable, but he couldn’t stop Levi once he saw those gears in his head in motion. That sensation of being analyzed, that man’s gaze had a new terror in them—and an air of mystery for the time between them. Levi stepped forward a bit more, getting around the couch and towards Erwin.

            “You still want to do this shit to keep going, don’t you?” Levi huffed. “You still have that dream of being some sugar daddy spoiling some bastard who falls into your lap until they stay there? Well I’ll put it this way—you think Nile gives two shits about that? No. We did. So tell me, Erwin, your usual plan is just meander by with pointless bullshit coming your way. Well? What is it now? You said you wanted to pay me back. What’s your plan? Huh? I’m listening.” Levi’s questions got more irritating and fast, sarcastic at best.

            “I just want to be with you.” Erwin spoke by first instinct. He really didn’t care anymore about meticulous speech, Levi always one upped him in the process. “I’ll bide my time on pointless shit. We can still do it. What we used to dream about—”

            “And what do you want me to do? Welcome you with open arms and hold you and beg you to take me back to our dreams? Beg you to fuck me and forget about all the pain? I’m not going to act like we didn’t all get fucked. I’ve been through hell. My dreams died. Someone fucked us over. It pisses me off. I’m going to find out who’s responsible, and they’re going to have a hell of a fucking day.” Levi came closer, was whispering low under his breath, but it sounds so violent, and his gaze could cut Erwin. Erwin thought a little of the night they first met. Levi had a similar look then. Albeit now, with a scar over his eye and a milky color on his iris Levi’s gaze was ten times more terrifying. And Erwin found himself reacting the same, stiff, submissive to Levi’s words and persuasions. Somewhat exhilarated, and vaguely aroused.

            “So what’s the plan?” Erwin was gazing up at Levi as the man stood right at the edge of the bed, in front of Erwin’s legs.

            “We go to my house. It’s fifteen minutes from here.” Levi spoke slow as if to get it all checklisted. “We get the Bugatti. We drive to Long Beach. No airplanes, they’re looking for your face they’ll find you on something like that.” He put his hand around Erwin’s head, only to grip the hair from the back hard, and tilt Erwin back so his throat was a bit more exposed. “We go into that rich assholes house and we aren’t leaving until we have negotiated some rightful payback.”

            “And if he’s not willing to listen?”

            Levi pulled the gun from the holster under his arm. “I’ll make him willing.”

* * *

 

Levi had been right on his assumption about the police. They had found the car, and there were police cars in the area where they had dumped it. Levi pulled sunglasses from his backpack—Erwin imagined Levi had acquired all sorts of things over the time he’d spent asleep. The checkout went by smoothly, though Erwin still felt like eyes were on him. His picture was in the paper after all. Even with the prosthetic on under his jacket, he was still worried about being recognized. Levi had convinced him after a long bout to finally just brush his hair apart and back, instead of the usual to the side. Public transit seemed safest to Levi, he felt blending in with throngs of other people would make it hard for them to stick out. Despite that, Erwin couldn’t shake the feeling that the cops were just a few steps behind them.

            “What if they’re at your house?” Erwin mumbled. The bus was crowded with all sorts of walks of life, a couple homeless, a few elderly sitting in the front, two workers in bright shirts clearly heading to some tourist-based job. Some college students. A woman holding her baby, and a small girl sitting adjacent, clutching the woman’s shirt. Levi leaned back in his seat.

            “I’m assuming they are at my house.” Levi replied. “They’ve probably checked basic things, bedroom, bathroom, basement, backyard… once that’s out of the way then they’ll just move on to where it seems we were headed.”

            “That could have been anywhere to them though.”

            “Yeah, so they probably dropped it.” Levi huffed. “I’m not a celebrity, I’m a cop just like them, they aren’t going to push this deeper than they have to. Shit, I’m sure half of them are glad I’m gone.”

            “I’m sure that’s not true.” Though Erwin had a feeling that probably was. Levi had… a very specific way about himself. An acquired taste.

            “It doesn’t matter either way.” Levi huffed. “Let’s get the car, and get the hell out of here.”

            “All right.” Erwin glanced down, everything had a brown sepia tinge when he was wearing sunglasses. He glanced down at his left arm, curling his fingers. He reached to Levi’s right thigh, and squeezed his knee. Levi turned to look, but said nothing, he couldn’t really see Erwin’s eyes, but it seemed he knew they locked gazes, and turned away as soon as he did.

            The bus stops all over the place, and they watched the workers drain out in front of the casino area, a whole lot of tourists exited at McCarran. Some university students get off at Carrington. The bus ride is about an hour long, and Erwin kept his hand to Levi’s leg, running his fingers along his thigh, as if to make sure he was real, that this was real, and finding great happiness in how solid the man beside him was. Levi didn’t react to the touch, not pulling away, not leaning in. Levi sighed through his nose, staring out the window, and Erwin gathered enough from that to cease the treatment. They finally arrived outside of a sleepy little neighborhood, beside Sunset Park.

            The two walked as inconspicuous as they could, Levi hauled one suitcase while holding his backpack and Erwin followed with the heavier suitcase. They had a fee to pay for bringing the items on the bus but it was trivial, and the money they had stolen the night before hadn’t been dented by much. Erwin looked around, all the fake grass, and gritty sand, all the pavement and red tile houses. Erwin was actually having to shield his eyes even with the sunglasses, it was so strong and bright outside. There were palm trees, and desert plants in the park, some suburban man walking his dogs on a leash. A suburban mother watching over her children while they played, amusing herself in her phone. The sidewalk was clean, almost no gum and cigarette butts. Some bottles of beer in the trash. Erwin had actually stopped walking, and Levi noticed when he wasn’t following, and turned.

            “What?” Levi asked.

            “You… you live here? You do?”

            “No, this is the park, I live up the road.”

            “You know what I meant.” Erwin walked up, catching up to Levi. “Last I remember you were cooped up in a shitty apartment on the meth dealing part of Chicago before I bought you that new place.”

            “So you assumed I was going to some meth den here?”

            “No. I’m just saying… this doesn’t seem like your kind of place.”

            “I wanted residential. It looked less suspicious.” Levi huffed. “And don’t say it doesn’t seem like my kind of place. You don’t know what my kind of _anything_ is.”

            “That’s not true.” Erwin reacted calmly, but he was somewhat muted by Levi’s words. He seemed so sure in saying that. Levi didn’t respond. It was just the sound of suitcases rolling on cement sidewalks. In the distance there was a party, someone barbequing and children playing and adults hiding in the shade of replanted desert plants. It felt too idyllic. It made Erwin feel his gut wrench. Maybe it was the thought of his mother. She was probably still in a place like this. But maybe she wasn’t even alive. He didn’t talk to her since Erwin figured out how to use the prosthetic arm. After that, a lot of people fell out of his life.

            Levi walks down the road. A little cul-de-sac place, white brick and red roof tiles, fake grass, a small little driveway. Pristine, flowers around the porch.

            “I feel like I’m being set up.”

            “If you had any indication of knowing when you were set up you wouldn’t have disappeared for five years.” Levi snapped. “Just shut up and get inside.”

            Levi reached for the door, and found it was opened. The cops had probably forced the lock. There was bootprints on the floor, as well as the carpet. Erwin looked around. Modern stuff, stainless steel kitchen. Tile in the doorway area, and white carpet in the living room. There was a hallway at the beginning of the house, and random pictures of modern art was hanging. A small cactus plant was sitting on the table beside the door. Levi looked around, and growled in annoyance. “Fucking mess…” Erwin barely caught, he was too busy looking at everything.

            “Look at this. Christ.” Levi was busy muttering at the dirt prints all over the ground of his house. All the room doors were open, even the broom closet and bathroom doors. “They were definitely here, but they didn’t find anything.” Levi stated.

            “You really live here?”

            “No, I happen to leave all my things here and the real people who live here don’t know it yet.” Levi barked. “Yes, I live here.”

            Erwin found magazines stacked on the coffee table, a flat screen tv, a massage chair. There was a shelf of books and dvds. He wandered around, not really thinking about the fact his shoes were trekking dirt in too. He breathed in. “Eight months huh?” He glanced at the ceiling fans—no dust, of course, Levi must’ve cleaned them. “Feels like you barely lived in it.”

            Levi was placing his guns on the table. He opened the suitcase to remove the shotgun. He gave it a good look, and set it down. “I’ll grab a few more things. Then we go. Door to the garage is in the kitchen, by the fridge.” He walked down, and turned to the second door on the left, his bedroom. Erwin stepped forward, following.

            A queen sized bed. The sheets tucked in, bed made, Levi must’ve done it when he left. There were pictures on the nightstand, and Erwin was surprised to see it. It was just Levi’s department in Chicago. It looked like something they gave as a gift before he left. Levi removed some clothing, and rolled it up tight, placing it into his backpack, shifting some things around. He had quite a few supplies, but Erwin didn’t have to guess, Levi was ex-military, he was carrying everything like he had a tactical on him.

            Levi pulled out one of the drawers in the nightstand, and opened a book. The inside was hollow, cut out, and replaced with a cellphone and a Driver’s License.

            “Hanji made us these when we split up.” Levi turned to show the license. “Never seen them since, but they said these should register if a policeman stops and runs it through the system.”

            “How did she ever end up with a bunch of cops. She could work for the Pentagon.”

            “She hates government shit.” Levi snapped the book shut. The cellphone he pulled out of the book vibrated, and he scowled, and glanced down at it before silencing it. Erwin glanced down, and looked in the drawer. There were some medals, some cold medicine, a small bottle of mouthwash, scissors, and Erwin raised his brow when he noticed a small vibrator. Levi shut the drawer, and turned around.

            “Shut up.”

            Erwin didn’t say anything in response.

            “They could come back any minute, let’s get out of here, okay?” Levi huffed, and stamped past Erwin. Erwin turned around, following the other, trying to forget the little pink plastic he’d seen. It stuck out so much in contrast with the rest of the house. It felt so cleaned and organized it felt like being in a real estate magazine. Erwin grabbed his two bags of luggage, and watched Levi place the shotgun in his backpack, the guns both holstered in shoulder holsters, which he didn’t cover with a jacket.

            “Hurry up.”

            Erwin followed, the door in the kitchen led to a clean, cold, dark garage. Levi flicked on the lights, and the bulb flickered violently until the light shined. There it was, it had been seven years since Erwin first laid eyes on the car. And it had been five since he’d ever seen it at all. Now the seats were tan, and the car was back to it’s original paintjob, pure jet black. It looked dusty, unused. Levi probably had no need for it.

            “You repainted. I thought you liked the red.”

            “Yeah, well, going from desperate for attention gold to mid-life crisis red was great and all, but I’ll just stick with black, okay?”

            Erwin didn’t comment. He let Levi situate the suit cases, and place the backpack of his at the foot of the driver seat. Erwin climbed in through the passenger side. Levi clicked open the garage door button. He set the garage door remote aside. Erwin had a feeling Levi didn’t intend to come back home. The engine roared, despite the signs of neglect. Levi drove them out, and when they hit the I-15, Levi floored it. Erwin braced himself, not ready for the sudden jump in speed. He glanced at Levi, a smirk on his face while the car roared and the desert became a blur around them.

            “What?” Levi asked.

            “We’re back in business, huh?”

            Levi gazed down at the road, and back down at his backpack. He shook his head, as if in disappointment, and with a sigh rising from his chest, and curt nod, followed by a simple confirmation.

            “Yeah. We’re back.”

* * *

 

I-15 would take a long while, but Erwin and Levi were accustomed to this from before. Erwin even more so. It would take hours to get to Long Beach, but that wasn’t a problem for the Veyron. It still ran like a dream. Erwin traced the side of the car door, he never did sit in the passenger side of the car. At the speed Levi was going at, they’d either get to Long Beach in half the time, or get pulled over by a cop. Erwin was starting to get worried about the latter.

            “Shouldn’t you watch your speed?”

            “The cops out here won’t pull over this car.” Levi hissed. “They’re afraid some hotshot millionaire actor is in the front seat headed back to Hollywood. And if that is the case, the actor whines he’ll miss his shooting or whatever, the cop gets fucked and get sued.” Levi shrugged. “Happens a few times, so cops pick on the cars that look like shit and lower income.”

            “And that was the profession you wanted, huh?”

            “I was hoping for more shoot-outs and bomb threats, not shitting rich assholes bending the laws around.” Levi huffed. “That’s why I’m picking this fuckin bone with Nile. He’s not going to get away just because he’s rich.”

            “Or because he owns the largest private security company in the country with the most amount of unauthorized hired idiots in the past decade.”

            “And that was the profession you wanted, huh?” Levi mimicked Erwin’s voice the same way he said it. Erwin glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, and scoffed.

            “I didn’t want any of this.” Erwin traced his finger on the design of the car door. “You know the reason why. Before I even told you… I was easy to read.” He turned, and gazed over Levi. “But I could never read you…”

            Levi doesn’t return a look. He’s glancing at that blurring heat in the horizon, and the desert brush as well as the short cacti beside the road. Erwin glanced forward for a moment. Cars were at least a mile ahead, and they’d catch up quickly. There were more cars coming in at the moment for Las Vegas. Southern Californians made up a huge amount of tourism.

            “You must hate me.” Erwin spoke. “You must want to kill me. But this whole time you haven’t said anything. Even when we were together you didn’t tell me anything. You didn’t talk about the military. You didn’t talk about your family—except to chastise them. I wanted to know you, you know? I didn’t want to have that falling out…”

            The last sentence Erwin meant to get out, rushed out in a gasp as the wind was knocked out of him. Erwin wrapped his arm around his head when he went flying forward, nearly into the windshield, just enough to crack it. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, and his arm was crushed by the force of slamming to a near dead stop after about 187miles per hour driving.

            “Ha—Levi, wh—” Erwin couldn’t breathe. Levi had his foot pushing the brake into the floor, two cars veered around them, almost crashing into the backside. Levi hit the gas, and twisted the wheel to the right, and drove the car down a shallow embankment onto the desert. He ripped the seat belt off, grabbed Erwin’s collar, and pulled him towards the driver side with such force Erwin nearly choked on his own spit.

            Erwin felt the blistering Mojave sun, and then he was slammed back into the desert floor. Levi pulled a gun out of his holster, and put it on Erwin’s head. He was on his knees, legs spread over Erwin’s chest, and Erwin could only stare at the gun on his forehead, and how cold it was compared to the hot desert floor under his back. He felt the pain in his left arm—his only arm left, and panted, staring at Levi. His eyes were grey and carried that usual anger, but the Levi of recent years was gone. The Levi that Erwin met seven years ago in a motel in Nipton was staring at him, all over again.

            “If I wanted to kill you—If I hated you—” Levi seemed to be having trouble finding the right words. He was painfully calm in his tone, just catching his breath as well, he seemed to just be out of breath from anger. “I would have done it. I would kill you. I could do it right now. I could do it whenever I want, you know why? Of course you do, it’s because you’d let me get away with it. You put your life in my hands, like you actually thought I’d take care of it—” A low, low voice, dropping to a tone Erwin was familiar with. Levi swallowed thick, and shifted the gun so it was under Erwin’s jaw, by his neck. Erwin glanced down well enough to see the safety was off, the gun was cocked, and Levi’s finger was on the trigger. He wasn’t joking.

            “Why do you do this to me?” Levi hissed. “I could kill you. Leave you here, the vultures would rip open your guts and your face and maybe for once you’d actually have some use for your body.” He breathed slow, and put his hand on Erwin’s hair, grabbing a fistful, and pushing the gun in, digging it into Erwin’s throat. Erwin didn’t say anything, he didn’t react, and Levi pushed harder until it crushed his Adam’s apple and he finally choked.

            “I didn’t tell you my life? I didn’t tell you my family? I didn’t clutch you while you were busy fucking me and told you my hopes and my dreams before you vanished again like you always fucking did? Yeah, you’re right. You wanted to know me? That’s why you left me? Are you fucking serious?”

            Erwin couldn’t find his voice, so he nodded in between Levi’s fistful of his hair and the barrel of the gun.

            “Fine. Fuckin—fine.” Levi hissed. “Here. Here’s my story. For you.” His tone was painfully sarcastic.

“You joined the military after high school. At nineteen. You got held back in elementary school. I remember. You told me.” Levi could see Erwin was a little surprised he remembered, but Levi didn’t give him a chance to say anything about it.

“By the time I was that age I’d been to prison twice. I robbed convenient stores, fucker, I smuggled drugs, I jacked cars. You think it got me off? That was the only thing I had! The only chance I got! I did this shit for a living. They send me to school, try to clean me up, make me a soldier ‘cause I can’t do anything else but fuck shit up. So you go to war, like a good boy, you do your duty for your stupid fucking country. And where does it get you? Captain of a police department in scenic fuckin nowhere! Jacking expensive cars for some asshole who hides in his billion dollar offshore accounts! Oh yeah, that’s the freedom we fought for. The American fucking dream!”

Levi’s hand releases Erwin’s hair only to come down hard, and Levi could see his palm mark on Erwin’s cheek. He felt himself panting, seething, anger; honest anger painted on him for the first time in years. “Great fucking story, right asshole?” He snapped. “Stop acting like I _changed_ you, like I _fixed_ you, fuck you. We were fucked up from the start, and look at us. We’re nothing. We didn’t change. We just got more fucked up, we just aged. That’s the type of people we are, we don’t thrive, we don’t even live, we just survive. And I was just fine before yesterday morning! And there you were all over again, telling me you missed me and you loved me. Even after you left me. Even after you said we needed to ‘take a break’. Fuck off.” Levi pulled the gun off Erwin’s throat.

“Levi please—”

A snap, the explosion of a gunshot echoed in the desert.

Erwin clutched his ears. The bullet was a hair away from his head, and the impact threw sand over his face and he shut his eyes, half from the pain ringing in his ears.

“If I really hated you. If I really wanted you to die. I would have killed you.” Levi’s sentences are stunted. He keeps them short. As if to drill them into Erwin. He pauses between each to catch his breath partially, both of them were shaking a bit from the bullet that was fired.

“I would have killed you. I would have done it. Not yesterday. Not today. Not now. I would have done it seven years ago. But I like you. I do. I still do. You hurt me all the time and I looked over it because I liked you. And I realized that’s what abuse is like. Not love. So I was disgusted. I’m not myself when you’re around me. But goddamn it, if you’re going to pay me and the rest of us back, then you better fucking deliver. Because we deserve it. I deserved it.”

“Levi…” Erwin laid in the sand, just staring up at the man. Pristine blue. You wouldn’t be able to tell all the sleepless nights in his eyes, nor all the horrors and the pain, nor the fear or disgust he felt. Erwin stared at Levi, wondering if he could say the right thing, if it made a difference anyway.

“I never wanted to hurt you…”

“It doesn’t matter what you want. What mattered was what you did.” Levi tucked the gun into his holster, under his arm. The barrel was still smoking but Levi didn’t even seem to care. He stood up, Erwin was staring up at him between his legs. Levi’s body blocked out the sun, and he was casted in a shadow because of it.

“Get in the fucking car.” Levi hissed.

Then he stepped over Erwin, and slid back into the driver’s seat. He turned the air conditioning up on high. Erwin rose, shaken, still off balance from the shot, and clutched his head with his only good hand. He struggled to get up, pushing his injured forearm in the sand, and rose to a standing position, wobbling a little in place.

“Been a long time.” Levi mumbled. Erwin assumed he was talking about his reaction to being shot at. “We’re not in the army any more. Now get in, grunt.”

            Erwin clutched the side of the car to realize his hands were shaking. Then he jumped back, nearly falling over, realizing the car was as blistering hot as the sun itself. He put his metal hand on the car, trying to stabilize with it, and hobbled over to the other side, wondering if Levi was going to drive off without him if he didn’t hurry up. It occurred to him Levi said that he wanted to be paid back, so of course that wouldn’t be the case. Erwin struggled the passenger door open, and plopped down into the passenger seat.

            “Happy now?” Levi asked, no tone, no sarcasm, as if even he didn’t care anymore. As he always did. Flying off the handle, then acting like the handle was no place to be anyway. Then acting like nothing happened. Typical. Erwin sunk in his seat.

            “Have your—”

            “Moment of clarity? Yes, I did.” Erwin cut Levi off before he could finish. He’d heard it before. “… I didn’t know. Just drive. I won’t talk.” Erwin said.

            “That’s a lie.” Levi huffed. “And fine. Don’t go forgetting what I said like some five-year-old throwing a tantrum.”

            Yet Erwin could tell Levi wanted his silence, because he was calm after Erwin wasn’t speaking anymore. It occurred to Erwin he had somewhat yelled at Levi when he did, mostly because he just could barely hear himself if he didn’t. His ears were ringing, the gun was far too close, the bullet, even closer. But he listened to Levi. He wasn’t going to forget what he said. How much he didn’t know about Levi. How much he just learned. Erwin wondered if he ever asked, despite that being a complaint of his. After they had those post-robberies night-after fucks that were never love making. Erwin was always gone; he had to be. Nile called him at ungodly hours of the night, and Erwin obeyed. He had to choose who he was following, especially in his state, and he chose Nile.

            And he chose wrong.

            It wasn’t the first time he chose wrong. So Erwin didn’t think much on it. What he thought on was Levi. His words could cut him deeper than anything, and Levi seemed to know what to say. At first he felt a bit of bitterness, wondering if Levi had forgotten what they agreed on. That this was not going to work. They said it at the very beginning. How unconventional it all was. Erwin shifted back in his seat. He made sure to buckle up this time. The bitterness was drowned out with his own guilt. Levi was crazy, but he had never done Erwin any wrong. Erwin couldn’t say he did the same. Erwin knew what he wanted, but he wasn’t sure he could obtain it. Now he felt positive it wasn’t possible.

            The car ride goes on, Erwin sat there, fighting the desire to sleep, as sleep had been his only painkiller for a number of years. But the ringing in his head, the bruise forming on his forearm, they were byproducts of Levi, and he wanted them to hurt. The hours passed with nothing but the engine. Levi had gone to turn the radio on, but there was nothing but love songs of every genre and he turned it off very quickly after skimming channels.

            A phone started to ring.

            Levi and Erwin looked at each other. Levi blinked, and realized it was coming from him. He pulled one hand off the wheel, and reached into his pocket. The cellphone he had just turned on at least two hours ago was ringing. He was looking at it for a while. Unknown Caller.

            “Nobody should have this number…” he mumbled.

            “Should you answer it?”

            “I don’t know.” Levi flipped the phone open anyway. He pulled the antenna with his teeth, and put the phone at his ear.

            _“I go out to brunch for the first time in years and when I get back you idiots are flying down I-15 in the Bugatti? Christ, I’d like to see what you can do before I go to lunch.”_

“Hanji!” Levi’s voice makes Erwin snap up in surprise.

            “Nice to hear your beautiful voice.” Hanji replied.

            “How the hell… how did you get this number? How did you find that out? How do you know where we are?” Levi asked in shock, before adding. “Maybe I shouldn’t know.”

            “Maybe.” Hanji replied. “I gave you that number idiot. That’s for emergencies. And the Las Vegas newspapers had a report on you come up online. You got me scare you know? I thought it was your obituary.”

            “I wish.” Levi huffed. “How do you know where we are.”

            “Well, they didn’t find you two.” Hanji stated. “And by the sound of it, you’re going a speed that would break necks at, so I’m assuming it’s the I-15, and I’m assuming the Bugatti.”

            “Any other assumptions?”

            “That someone I haven’t heard from in a long time is sitting beside you.”

            Levi glanced at Erwin. The blond was on alert, staring in curiosity mixed with concern. He wanted to talk, he could hear Hanji vaguely, but he didn’t ask. He wasn’t sure he could bring himself to talk to Levi with the initial shock gone. Levi sighed.

            “You’d be right.”

            “What happened!? How did you find him? Where has he been?”

            “Calm down, Jesus.” Levi hissed. “He got set up. Ironic, right?”

            “Coincidental actually, but continue.”

            “He fucked up. He got fucked, he’s a goddamn mess. And now I’m driving his sorry ass to Long Beach to have a word with his boss.”

            “Ohh… are you going to kill him?”

            “Who?”

            “Nile. Not Erwin.”

            “Might be both.” Levi glanced to the side again. “Erwin had some idea of paying us back. So you may as well come over and visit. Where the hell are you anyway?”

            “Kansas City.”

            “The hell are you doing there?”

            “Levi we all have some long stories, okay?”

            Levi rolled his eyes.

            “Well, captain hacker, where is Mike and Nanaba?”

            “Montreal. Last I heard anyway.” Hanji replied. “I didn’t talk much; I’ve been very busy.”

            “Do I want to know?”

            “No, you don’t. I’d tell you anyway though.” Levi felt like he could hear Hanji grinning their usual grin. “Let me talk to him.”

            “You want that?”

            “That’s why I asked.”

            Levi scoffed, he pulled the phone from his ear, and shoved it towards Erwin’s chest. Erwin raised his eyebrows, and glanced down at the phone. He picked it up quick, and put it at his ear.

            “Hanji?”

            “Long time no see.”

            “God, Hanji, I heard what happened, I’m so sorry—”

            “Ah, ah, ah—!” Hanji cut him off. “Wait until we get Mike and Nanaba then we can all have our apologies one time okay?”

            Erwin smiled slight. “I missed you guys.”

            “I know. We’re a missable bunch.” Erwin heard some shuffling. “So, what’s your plan? Just snipe Nile? Plant a bomb on him?”

            “I’m not trying to kill him. I just want to talk.”

            “Well, you’re not good at much else.” Hanji replied. “Or at least, not good at anything that would help get to him. You don’t have a plan huh?”

            “Not the slightest. I’m sure Levi doesn’t have one either.” Erwin could see Levi glance out of the corner of his eye, but he didn’t look back. “Levi sort of came up with the idea.”

            “And what is your overall plan, huh Erwin?”

            “I’m going to pay you guys back.” Erwin wanted Hanji to know, earnestly, as well as Mike and Nanaba. “I never meant to disappear. I don’t know if you trust me or not. I’m going to make it up to you.”

            “And you think fucking around with Nile is going to help? Hell, you two just fixing to get yourselves killed.” On Hanji’s end, Erwin heard something slam shut.

            “Look. Calm down.” Hanji instructed. “Don’t kill anyone. Yet. Find a shitty motel, or a nice hotel, whatever you fancy, and wait for me, okay? I should be there in…” Erwin could hear Hanji typing and clicking. “Ten hours.”

            “You’re crazy.” Erwin sighed, and shifted back. “Hey, I know we got off on bad terms when I left… and I know it must seem crazy—”

            “Hey, I said save it didn’t I? Talk to me in person. Apologize in person. Don’t tell me over the phone.” Hanji’s wishes were simple enough for Erwin to abide by. He nodded at the phone before he realized he needed to say his agreement aloud.

            “All right.” Erwin said.

            “Listen to me. You don’t have to worry about apologies, about payback, about redemption, or whatever the hell else I’m sure Levi said. You just got to do one thing for me, okay?”

            “And what’s that?”

            “Just try to stay alive until I get there.”

            Erwin glanced to the driver seat, letting his eyes wander past and out into the scorching desert. There was a vulture circling the barren blue sky. Erwin sighed through his nose, and leaned back in his seat. He stared at Levi’s chest, towards his shoulder holster, and leaned into the phone.

            “No promises.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, I got overwhelmed very recently. Hopefully I can get back on top of my writing. Thank you for your patience with me! Please let me know what you think in the comments!


	4. Chapter 4

The silence is so deep it is deafening. Once Hanji’s phone call is done, once the shock of being contacted dies down, the two have a million questions, and no one to ask. Erwin has kept his metal prosthetic over his left arm. Rolling the sleeve up, a bruise had started to form already. Reddish mark slowly turning purplish. Erwin stared at the crack in the windshield. He thought. He could do nothing but think. Levi’s words buzzed in his head, as well as the ringing of his inflamed eardrums that wouldn’t cease whining.

            This combined with the throbbing ache in Erwin’s head was turning into a near migraine. He started to shut his eyes to keep the sunlight out, but it was still a distraction. Still painful. It felt right to feel it. Even if Erwin hated it, he felt like he was deserving of it. Had missing Levi made him forget all the problems they had? Erwin struggled to agree. He remembered. The disappearing, the lying, the distractions, sleeping around, not keeping promises. It was all on his side, tipping the scale until Erwin was so low he could hit the bottom. Yet Levi still stuck around despite it all, and Erwin hadn’t realized, hadn’t even appreciated it until it was too late.

            Levi deserved better. Erwin had reached that conclusion far before he disappeared. And Levi had known the exact same. Erwin thought a little bit about the time that’d passed. He thought about the time they met. About the time before that. About his arm exploding and the fragment getting into his ribs and piercing a bit of his liver so it’d have to be partially cut out. The way Levi said ‘American Dream’ ran in his head a bit. Yeah. That was it. Erwin was living it. Erwin gazed out the window, and leaned his head against the window. The cool glass felt good with the air conditioner. The engine was louder than anything else in the car.

            “I’m getting out here.”

            Erwin opened his eyes. He didn’t remember falling asleep. Rubbing his eyes, he quickly looked around, and scanned for the scenery. Levi was sitting in the driver seat, door open one leg out, backpack over his shoulder. He was staring at Erwin. Erwin glanced back out the windows. They were in a parking lot outside a two story motel with bright annoy orange doors that made Erwin’s eyes hurt.

            “Where are we?” Erwin massaged his temples.

            “Pasadena.” Levi replied. “We’re spending the night. I already got the rooms.” Levi tossed a key at Erwin’s lap. Erwin flinched, and reached to grab for it. He glanced around. There were one or two other cars. Erwin shifted back, and unbuckled his seatbelt.

            “Hurry up, I need to take a piss.” Levi shut the car door, and slung his backpack over his shoulder. Erwin shifted out of the car, trying not to fall over when the blood rushed into his legs and out of his head and his vision went black. He clutched the door for a second, and lifted his head to see Levi walking across the parking lot. He shoved a key in one of the annoyingly orange doors, beside it an air conditioning unit was sticking out.

            “Wait.” Erwin huffed. “What about the Bugatti…? It’s not exactly conspicuous. We can’t leave it here.”

            “Relax.” Levi waved his hand around as if to dismiss Erwin. “There’s a parking garage across the street. And the car cover is in the trunk.” He opened the room, and walked inside. The door shut behind him. The sky was pale blue, no clouds, but not as hot as the desert. Erwin shielded his eyes, and glanced to the car. He opened the door, and pulled out one of the suitcases before locking and shutting the car. Erwin rolled the suitcase with him, and opened the room. There were two separate beds, each with red duvets and mirrors as headboards. Erwin saw the bathroom door was shut, and he rolled his suitcase over to the bed closest to the door, and sat down at the edge. He sat there rubbing his forehead and temples for a long time.

            The toilet flushing followed by the sound of the sink turning on alerted Erwin. So he straightened himself out, still feeling like a mess, head still aching. He tried to groom his hair back after it being flattened on one side. There was still some sand on his clothes. Erwin untied his shoes, and just let his feet breathe. Levi shut the door behind him, and Erwin turned to see him toweling his hands off.

            “I’ll be right back.” Levi huffed.

            “What do we do now?” Erwin noted Levi walked right past and stopped at the door. Levi turned to face him.

            “Well, you had your lovely little nap so do whatever the hell you like. I’m going to stash the Bugatti and then I’m going to sleep. I’m tired.” Levi opened the door swift and shut it fast before Erwin could respond.

            Erwin sat on the bed, and gave another sigh. He turned the suitcase on its side, and opened it. He retrieved his bottle of Vicodin and popped one into his mouth. Erwin pulled the straps of the prosthetic off, and let the metal arm hang out of his sleeve as he maneuvered himself around to get it out of his shirt. Erwin set the arm down on the suitcase. He sighed, and laid back on the bed, staring at the mirror above the bed.

            The TV remote was broken, and Erwin couldn’t bother to stand up and turn it on manually. He just laid there. Couldn’t sleep, not with an encroaching headache and the fact that he had just awoken. His left forearm throbbed, and he rolled up the sleeve to see a large purple bruise had surfaced. Erwin turned to look around the room. Dark red blankets and sheets. Mirrors and small bottles of cheap perfume and bar soaps. Something about this fake, laid out environment was all that was familiar to Erwin. This motel seemed a bit seedy, but he didn’t think on it. Erwin didn’t feel he was exactly high class.

            Levi returns after a short ten minutes, though for Erwin the time seems so long. Perhaps the company made Erwin notice the absence even stronger. Some days it felt like Erwin could not keep track of time. Now he kept too many tracks of time. Levi walked over to the other bed, and removed his shoes, setting them aside, pulling off his shirt, and dropping it to the floor. He doesn’t look Erwin in the eye. Erwin doesn’t try to get him to.

            “So we just wait?” Erwin pressed.

            “I said do whatever you want.” Levi huffed. “Hanji won’t be here for a while.” Levi threw the bedsheets up. He laid himself down, glancing up. “You can go walk around. Go eat, play golf, fuck a hooker, I don’t care, okay?” He sighed, and turned his body to the side in bed. “I’m going to sleep. I’m tired.”

            Levi laid his head down, and shut his eyes. He took a deep breath in, and sighed through his nose.

            “Good night.”

            Levi creased his eyebrows in response. Erwin laid down as well.

            Levi looked tired, maybe stress and anger caught up to him, and he was out and asleep before he had tucked himself in. His hair was messy, black, and a few small strands of grey-white hair. The scar on his eyelid was prominent, the same eye that was milky colored. He had a bare patch where the scar came that eyelashes did not grow. His forehead was creased, and he frowned in his sleep. His lips were dry, chapped, and his face was tan from time in the sun. He looked exhausted and borderline ill, and Erwin could bet he was sick of this all, and his heart twinges and he felt nothing stronger than the urge to hold Levi. To clutch him and touch his hair, and smooth it back. To let his forehead to relax and for him to just be there, living, safe, and Erwin wanted to have that, to be able to give that.

That was the part that Erwin knew was broken in him. He could never repair it. He could never go back to how it was before. The way he felt, those small instances of just little things, they were the same as the frag that floated around in his torso. The same feeling as the explosion that ruined his arm. He could not go back to feeling the way he used to before. But he did not act, he would not. Levi was comfortable, and Erwin knew his presence was not welcomed warmly. So he laid there, watched Levi sleep for a while, and turned, facing his back so he would stop. Even in sleep Erwin was worried he was bothering Levi.

            Erwin wondered if maybe those memories were exaggerations. Clearly they were not as happy in Levi’s mind as they were in his own. Perhaps he had decided to block out all the bad over the past five years. He thought he himself would be above wishful thinking, but he could not help it. Erwin turned to glance at Levi again. His forehead was a little less creased. Completely knocked out by sleep. He really was tired. Did he sleep the night before? Erwin realized he didn’t ask. He merely saw Levi sitting there, awake, scanning the newspapers.

            There was so much to think about it made Erwin’s head hurt alone just trying to organize it all. So much time had passed. So many things to talk about. And no one to talk to. No one to catch up with. Levi was disinterested, he was angry, and he wanted what he deserved. Erwin knew meeting again wouldn’t bring closure. Especially the way things ended. Time had only created a schism. Erwin couldn’t see a way to get across. So he sat there, at that isolated point.

            He slept. Erwin felt he could do nothing but that. It was the only thing that brought him some relief of the buzzing thoughts and painful throb in his head. There was still so much to say, and be said. Erwin had wondered if Levi was even curious to ask where he’d been. Erwin had thought many times, how he would explain everything, yet being here, he could barely say anything. Erwin could recall when he went around trying to contact everyone. The only person who answered was Nile. Erwin had wondered for years if they had all tried to split from him, he was almost happy to hear they had been set up—Erwin knew that wasn’t his fault. And it wasn’t their fault for dropping numbers and addresses. They hadn’t run away from him, or left him on purpose either.

            There was no way to express the emptiness of returning to Chicago after years only to find Levi not there. And to find Mike and Nanaba, and Hanji, all gone as well. Being alone had become so common for Erwin, he felt disgusted that he had so much hope in finding them. Not even a clue left behind for him. It ached at him for so long. And now he had almost literally crashed into Levi, and Hanji had thrown herself in the mix after this sudden run away situation. Erwin couldn’t even think of how to explain. He had so many stories in so many different places it was hard to even keep track, let alone find a place to start.

            Erwin breathed deeply. In time. He reminded himself. In time. Yes, it seemed everything had to happen in time. So Erwin waited, laying his face against the small musty motel pillow, hoping time would be kinder this time around.

* * *

 

Well into the night Erwin slept, and woke with a bigger headache than when he fell asleep. His ears still hurt, but the swelling must’ve gone down. Raising his head hurt, but he could hear something faint in the distance. There was someone talking. He lifted his head. A hazy blue outline of light was cast on the room as the only source of light. Erwin blinked twice, the light forming into the T.V. set. There was a show on, but Erwin couldn’t be bothered to tell what it was about. He turned his head. Levi was awake, laying on his back. He stared at the ceiling, the T.V. remote in his hand. Probably just looking for background noise.

            “Hey…”

            “What.” Levi snapped, still staring at the cracks in the ceiling.

            “Did Hanji call?”

            “About seven hours ago. She’ll be landing shortly.” Levi replied.

            “I should go rent another room for her.”

            Levi blinked to respond.

            “Levi.”

            No response.

            “Would you rather me stay in that room with her? You can have this room to yourself.”

            “If you want to, go ahead.”

            “Do you want me to?”

            Levi turned his head. The blue outline of light lit up the milky white of his left eye, as well as the scar that trailed over his face. He was frowning, and stared for a few seconds. “I came here to settle a score with some people. Not to have a stupid get-together and throw a sleepover. I don’t care what you do. Nile’s on the list, because he fucked you. Then you’re on the list, because you fucked me.” Levi snapped.

            Erwin shifted in bed. “Anyone else on the list?”

            “Not anyone you’ll need to know about. It’s my list.” Levi turned his head away gazing over at the bathroom. A skeleton glow of orange light was coming through the Venetian blinds from the streetlamps. There was the sound of an occasional car passing by. Erwin felt an itch to go out driving. He was so used to it. Sleepless nights, where he knew his only limit was exhaustion. He knew the feeling of midnight air on his face while the starless black sky hung above him. Alone, the passing of people slipping into cones of streetlights for a split second, then back into the darkness. The radio stations he knew by heart through state lines and counties. He wasn’t used to the T.V. chatter, nor the presence of another, and despite longing the latter so often, being as it was, he felt very uncomfortable.

            The cellphone rang, thankfully, and Levi sat up, and reached out to answer it.

            “Yeah.” He said aloud. “Okay. We’re in Pasadena. I’ll send you the address. Erwin will buy a room for you. Okay. No. He’s sleeping.” Levi hung up after that couple of phrases.

            “She’s at the LAX, she’ll be here in a little while. With her driving I’ll assume twenty minutes.” Levi set the phone on the table, and laid back.

            Twenty minutes was just about how long the infomercial on the T.V. was. It was for a set of thirty kitchen knives, and Erwin didn’t watch, but Levi was, which concerned him; to say the least. Once Erwin felt a little too concerned he stood up, and exited the room, stretching his back and listening to the round of popping noises in his spine. He groaned. Erwin glanced into the room beside their own. It seemed empty, he went up to the lobby. The woman was hard to see as she was behind a barred window with slight tint that reflected the orange light. Erwin asked for the specific room. She didn’t ask a question about. She offered him the key after he shucked out some cash. The transaction was quick, and by the time he was done, Levi was standing outside the doorway with the cellphone in his hand, shut.

            “She’ll be here in a bit.” Levi explained. Erwin hated to say he was somewhat excited. Only because the excitement came from the likelihood of Levi murdering him in his sleep lowering a little bit. The other being that Erwin wanted to see them all after the past five years. They waited for a few minutes. Sure enough, a white car passed by, then circled around and pulled into the motel parking lot.

            “I told you it was this one.” The two couldn’t see who was speaking, but the voice was soft and dull, and somewhat deep. They started humming.

            “Oh shush.” Hanji responded. Erwin and Levi looked at each other. She turned the engine off, and the headlights shut off too. She was sitting in the driver seat. That same goofy grin, a fake tooth on her bottom right canine. She had thick framed glasses that made her brown eyes hard to see. She got out of the car, and rushed up to them. She wrapped her arms around Levi, and squeezed.

            “Oh, it’s good to see you again.” She hummed, and Levi wrapped one arm in response. He looked a bit less tense for just a small moment. Then she released and turned to Erwin. She didn’t approach, just staring him down, arms akimbo.

            “Well, look at you.” She huffed. “Where’ve you been?”

            “It’s a long story.”

            “Well, we’ve got a lot of time.” Hanji replied. She dropped her arms, and came forward, wrapping her arms around Erwin’s neck. She pulled him against her shoulder and held his head there. Erwin sank against her. It felt different to be embraced. Certainly compared to being thrown on the desert floor and shot at. He wondered what Mike’s reaction would be for a second.

            “You look horrible.” Hanji remarked. “You haven’t been taking care of yourself.”

            “I hope you can imagine why that is.”

            “Don’t worry, Levi told me what happened. How you got set up and everything.”

            “Did he?” Erwin turned to look at Levi, but Levi wasn’t looking at either of them. He was eyeing the passenger side of the white hatchback Sedan.

            “Who is that?” Levi pointed. There was a man sitting there. He had a headset on, clutching a CD player. He had light brownish hair and dark eyes. He was staring forward, not really looking at anything, and drumming his fingers along the dashboard of the car like he was playing a piano.

            “Oh!” Hanji stepped away from Erwin. “Moblit, come out here.”

            Moblit didn’t move. She opened the door, and tapped his CD player. He didn’t respond. Still drumming his fingers on the dashboard. She rolled her eyes.

            “Ugh. He’ll get out in two minutes and thirteen seconds.” Hanji explained.

            “What?”

            “He’s got this thing with… music and stuff.”

            “Who's this chucklefuck?” Levi huffed.

            “His name is Moblit.” Hanji replied. “Moblit Berner.”

            “The hacker?” Erwin asked.

Levi stared at Erwin. Erwin glanced back, and then at Hanji.

“That’s the one.”

“How the hell did you get him? He’s serving an over sixty year sentence.”

“What the hell’d he do?” Levi asked.

“What didn’t he do?” Erwin responded. “He was doing all sorts of white-collar. Embezzlement, laundering, forgery, cybercrime, identity theft, bribery. He was taking stuff from the guy I worked with in London.”

“You were in London?” Hanji asked.

“Long story.” Erwin waved his hand.

“He got caught four years ago for racketeering in—”

“Kansas City.” Erwin finished. “Don’t tell me you broke him out of prison… that’s the last thing we need.”

“I was never in prison.”

The three turned back to the car. Moblit had a small voice. He pulled his headphones off, and set it around his neck. He gazed over at Erwin, and between the three. “I was in house arrest.”

“Don’t they wire you though?”

“Yes.” Moblit shoved his hand into his pocket, and pulled out an ankle tracker. “It’s more of a memento now.” His voice was still distance, gaze going past the buildings and seemingly into some dreamworld since he seemed to be looking at nothing. He slid out of the car and stepped on the asphalt; silent.

“How’d you get this freak?”

“I showed him how to hack the tracker.” Hanji replied simply.

“I should have thought of it. It was so simple.” Moblit murmured. “You take any enclosed box with conductive material, any faraday cage really, place two phone in with an SIMs cards, rip the ankle tracker SIM, replace one SIM and send an SMS to the other phone. Get the phone number and send an SMS to the police online and just slip away.” He crinkled his eyes, and waved his hand out like he was brushing something aside in the air.

“What the hell did he just say?”

“I helped him trick the police into thinking he was still in his house and broke him out.” Hanji explained. “It was stupid easy. I was going to pack up and leave, but Moblit insisted we stay in Kansas City for a few months.”

“Why stay? They could find you at any time.”

“Because it’s the last place they’d look.” Moblit replied simply. “If I was as smart as they thought I’d be international. Not a few blocks down.”

“Wouldn’t they recognize you?”

“I was used to not leaving a house, I could get used to living in a basement.”

“I had some babysitting, basically.” Hanji replied. “But he works for me now. Well, sort of. He’s got the goods on Nile.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” Moblit hummed. “I must say; you’re messing with the wrong person. You won’t get a life sentence in house arrest. You’ll be dead in the streets. This guy acts more on emotion rather than logic…”

“Yes, that’s called being a human being. Try it some time.” Levi replied.

Moblit shrugged. He didn’t seem fazed by Levi’s words, but he did not seem fazed by anything at the moment. He shifted back, and opened the backseat door. He pulled out a laptop, and some rolled up paper.

“Let’s get inside.” Hanji explained. Erwin handed over the key. She reached into the back, pulling out a small rolling suitcase, and walked it inside. Moblit had nothing more than a shoulder bag. When he opened it, all it had was CD’s, an extra headset, and a bunch of other organized and tagged wires that belonged to the laptop he was carrying. There was some huge hunk of metal inside as well, but Erwin decided not to ask. Moblit set his belongings on his bed, and was cleaning his CD player over and over.

“Moblit… the plans?”

“Hmm?”

“The blueprints?”

“Oh.” Moblit still kept cleaning the CD player. Hanji tapped her foot. He reached down slow, and lifted a rolled up paper as long as his arm, and held it out to her. “Here.”

“Thank you.”

Hanji went over to a small circular dining table at the corner of the room beside the T.V. set.

“Is he high or something?” Levi pointed over to Moblit when the three were setting up. Moblit was cleaning his ears, and cleaning the headphones now.

“No, he’s just… something else.” Hanji replied. She turned back. “Anyway, I don’t know how, but Moblit printed this up last night. It’s a blueprint of Nile’s house. He was kind enough to point out where every security camera is.”

“So where’s the blind spot?” Levi asked. Hanji began to roll out the blueprint. It was certainly a large house. Six bedrooms, five bathrooms, a lounge, an office, a crafting den, a pool, a huge kitchen, an even bigger dining hall, a backyard garden, a Jacuzzi and a bar area. A long driveway to boot. There were markings done in yellow by Moblit showing security camera locations and their cone of vision. Two by the pool, one in the kitchen, two at the front door, one in the garage, one outside the garage, one facing the driveway, one facing the backyard garden. One in each bedroom and in-between the halls.

“Well Christ, that doesn’t look like there’s any place to sneak it at all.” Levi huffed.

“You won’t have to.” Moblit pulled out the hunk of metal in his shoulder bag, which Erwin realized was a computer brain. Moblit started setting up the laptop like a desktop computer, setting the brain underneath it. He sat on the bed, putting all the wires and plugging them in on the nightstand. He pulled out the phone cord, and plugged an adapter for an Ethernet cable inside, attaching it to a router. He opened the laptop, and mumbled while he typed something.

“Care to explain, chucklefuck?”

“Mhn.” Moblit replied. “Take me to Long Beach. The security camera’s run on a wireless transmission pinging it between the satellite systems and then back online to a specific website URL that will link to a live feed—”

“English.” Levi piped up. Moblit continued. Hanji turned and translated.

“He said the camera’s video runs on wi-fi. If he can get in range to the wi-fi he can get in and make it loop the video so it’ll be hard to tell what changed.”

“Brilliant. So we just waltz up the front door?”

“Not so fast.” Moblit replied. He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, and unfolded it. He read over it, humming something that sounded like the Russian National Anthem. “Nile’s wife leaves the house at an average of 7:43 to 7:49am to take the children to school. She’s followed by two cars of guards usually. Nile leaves for his job at 8:37 to 8:51, the latest being 8:57 last I caught.”

“How the hell do you know that?”

“He was watching the security camera footage on the way over.” Hanji sighed. “I told him he didn’t have to.”

“You already have the footage?”

“Just for the past week. All you need is a URL to the website. They don’t password protect it even… You’d think higher of a private security CEO…” Moblit muttered.

“Your buddy is freaking me out, but I’ll get over it.” Levi huffed. “All right. Well, we got the guns, we got the freak with the computer, we got cars; we don’t need much else. Let’s do this.”

“Well, we’ve got to sleep on it at the very least. It’s still the middle of the night. Hopefully I won’t get any jetlag… Moblit, I don’t know how he sleeps or if he does.” Hanji remarked. “For now, let’s just figure out how to get in.”

“We’ll just go up to the front door—it’s not like they’ll see us coming.”

“And what, Levi? Knock? He’s going to notice that nobody showed up on the video feed. They’re paranoid. He checks the feed all the time on his phone. Moblit said so.”

Moblit nodded in the background as if to confirm Hanji’s words.

“Well then, what do you suggest?”

“I was thinking we go around and find an opening. Maybe pose as gardeners. This can take time. We shouldn’t just bet on doing it all tomorrow. Like old times.”

“Stop saying like old times, this isn’t like then. I’m not dicking around and waiting. If we can get this over with we should.” Levi huffed. “This guy is a bump in the road, we have more things to do than this. We still don’t have Mike. We don’t need to get him involved with this in particular, so let’s take care of it and move on to bigger and better things.”

“Well, if we can even get him involved with anything. He kind of bowed out with Nanaba.” Hanji replied. “What exactly are you looking to get out of Nile anyway?”

“His blood maybe.”

“Levi.” Erwin butted in. “We just want to talk. I need to talk with him about what happened. I need him to hear my side. Him and I go way back. I think he’ll understand.”

“Levi’s probably got the better idea…” Moblit mumbled.

“See? Chucklefuck over there agrees.” Levi huffed.

“Let’s just sleep on it.”

“We already slept on it.”

“Well, sleep on it some more.” Hanji replied. “I’m tired. Moblit… I don’t know. But it’s been a long and strange couple of hours. We just got back into this business. Gotta stretch our legs, make sure we don’t pull something or get a cramp in the middle of it all. We’re like newborns all over again.”

“Can we at least assemble some plan?”

“Well, the way I see it, Moblit just needs to drive by the house. If we can, we’d best drive by slow. Maybe find a place to park. Maybe take both the cars. The Bugatti is good for getting away fast, but not for hiding. It sticks out like a sore thumb. After that we wait for Moblit to give us a signal, then you can go in guns blazing… I don’t know where though.”

“The dining room patio door.” Moblit answered. He was watching the footage by the looks of it, writing something down in blue ink on his folded paper. “The kids let the dog outside before they go to school… so the door should be open. It’s by the pool, so you’ll have to hop the backyard fence around the garden.”

“Won’t even break a sweat.” Levi huffed. “All right, find him, corner him, coerce him. Simple enough.”

“Is the dog a vicious looking dog?” Erwin asked before Levi got too into the idea.

“If you consider Chihuahua’s vicious.” Moblit murmured.

“I don’t know if that’s too much for you to handle, but I’m fine with that.” Levi folded his arms. “We get in there between 7:40 and 8:30. That’s a huge frame of time. Enough to get to Nile. Where is he usually?”

“Inside the kitchen or inside the office room…” Moblit mumbled. “He takes his work home and does it in the office. Picks it up from there in the morning, makes coffee, smokes two to three cigarettes, then drinks a Spirulina drink and heads out…”

“Is he always going to be this creepy?”

“Yeah.” Hanji shrugged. “He’s creepily observant though. I’ll give him that.”

“Well, that’s a solid amount of information.” Erwin replied. “It’s good enough work to me. Let’s just get some things ready and rest until tomorrow… we need to regulate our sleep at the very least.”

At that notion they split into their preparation. Hanji seemed to coax Moblit to help her with any devices she was setting up. He did it silently, not explaining himself, just curious and breathy voiced as ever. Levi rolled his eyes, and turned out to head to the adjacent room. Erwin followed. Levi pulled his two handguns and the shotgun. He sat there for a few moments, just looking around at what they had. Levi reached into his backpack, and pulled out a bulletproof vest he’d tucked away. He laid out clothing, and sat back at the edge of the bed, looking at his things.

“Which gun should I use?” Erwin asked.

“From your plan it sounded like we weren’t using any.”

“Well, we need to at least get to him.”

“Take whatever you like.” Levi replied. He settled down on the bed. “Well, I guess we don’t have any choice but to sleep.”

“I’m just going to take a large sleeping pill and try to head off to bed.” Erwin replied. “I don’t know about that guy but… I know he’s a genius. We’d be lucky to have him on our side.”

“From the sound of it he’s our type. Dangerous, and sort of stupid.” Levi replied. He pulled his shirt off, and stood up again. “I’m taking a long shower, a bath, and then I’ll think about sleeping again… I feel like I’m in a retirement home doing all this nothing.” He huffed. Erwin couldn’t really respond, so he turned his head away as Levi stripped his clothes off on the way to the bathroom. He left the door open, and started the shower. Erwin went to his luggage for his pills, pulling a thing of Vicodin, and a sleeping pill he’d only take as needed. He knew it would take a while for the affect, but sure enough, the pain in his head faded a bit, and his eyelids felt heavy. He pulled his shirt off, as well as his prosthetic arm, and tucked himself in, hearing the bathtub filling with water. Everything felt so close. Erwin knew it would be better if he just got a regular night sleep, and they had a solid plan by tomorrow. It took a while. With the T.V. turned to some music channel, Erwin found it felt like the radio in the car, and the slight static from the small T.V. set helped with that. It was just the type of white noise to send him back to sleep again.

* * *

 

Erwin woke a bit late, groggy, eyes narrow and blinking for some view of the world again. He felt around, pulling the blankets off. The curtains had been shut, even the bathroom ones. It seemed Levi must’ve been considerate. The TV was shut off too. He stared for a moment. The bed beside him was empty. He rubbed his eyes, and turned on a light, shielding himself to adjust to the brightness.

Levi’s backpack was gone, as well as the guns, and the bulletproof vest.

“Oh no…” Erwin got out of bed, trying not to black out from his blood rushing down out of his head. He held to the bed, and searched for his prosthetic. After a bit of stumbling to get some proper clothes on, he combed his hair out, and headed out. He stepped outside, and found the Bugatti sitting right in front of their motel room. Erwin came forward, wondering if Levi had just been waiting for him to get ready. However, inside the vehicle was not Levi; it was Moblit. He was listening to his CD’s again. Humming aloud. The car was off, window rolled down. Erwin walked up, and reached out to tap Moblit’s shoulder. Moblit jumped like he didn’t see Erwin coming. He shifted away and shut his eyes, playing an invisible piano. Erwin’s shoulders sank. He leaned in, seeing the CD player. There was a minute left on the song he was listening to. Erwin waited for Moblit to finish listening, and tapped his shoulder again. Moblit pulled off his headphones and turned his head.

            “Mh-hm?” He hummed.

            “Moblit, where is Levi?”

            “Oh…? I don’t know…”

            “What are you doing in our car?”

            “Levi said the white Sedan was better for hiding. So he wanted it.” Moblit put his hands on the steering wheel. “He let me drive this, you know?”

            “Where did you two go, exactly?”

            “Nile Dawk’s house.” Moblit replied.

            Erwin had a dark feeling emerge in the pit of his stomach. “Moblit, where is Levi now?”

            “I don’t know.” Moblit repeated. “I don’t know what he did when I looped the footage. I know he left the house though…”

            “Moblit!” Erwin’s voice snapped Moblit’s gaze finally to look at someone. He looked like a deer in headlights, staring at Erwin. “Moblit, are you telling me Levi already got Nile?”

            “I believe so. That was his plan.”

            “Why didn’t you tell us?”

            “I thought you all planned this.”

            Erwin sighed. “Is Hanji awake?”

            Moblit shook his head.

            “Oh god.” Erwin massaged the bridge of his nose. “Stay here. I’m going to get her.”

Moblit nodded, and put his headphones back on.

            Erwin opened the motel room. Hanji was still sleeping peacefully. Moblit’s computer was dismantled, wires all over his bed like a circuit board had exploded. Hanji was stripped down to a bra and pants. There was scars on the right side of her body. Erwin reached out, and shook her arm.

            Hanji pulled a knife out from under his pillow.

            “What?” she jumped up, glancing around, processing, and settling down. “Oh, Erwin. Almost cut you there.”

            “Hanji, Levi’s gone.”

            “Gone where?” The woman dropped the knife on the nightstand, and felt around gingerly for her glasses. Erwin reached for it, handing it over to Hanji. She nodded in thanks, and slipped them on after rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She threw the blankets off, and swung her feet out and onto the ground.

            “Your hacker friend took Levi to Nile’s house.”

            “What? Why?”

            “I don’t know, because Levi wants to kill him I guess.”

            “No, why did Moblit take him?” Hanji stood up, and felt around for the wrinkled shirt she had on yesterday. She slipped it on, and walked outside. She stopped for a moment, surprised.

            “You still had the Bugatti?”

            “Levi had it.” Erwin explained. “It’s doesn’t matter.”

            “Right, right.” Hanji replied. She walked over to Moblit, and lowered herself more to eye level with him.

            “Moblit?” she asked.

            Moblit was humming. Erwin sighed. The two of them both waited about three minutes and fifteen seconds before he pulled of his headset and responded with “Yes Hanji?”

            “Why did you take Levi to Nile’s house?”

            “Because he asked me to.” Moblit replied. “I didn’t take him. He drove the Sedan and I drove this.”

            “But why did you go?”

            “Because he asked… did I not say that?”

            “Moblit, are you saying Levi went inside there alone?”

            “Yes.” He nodded. “He didn’t come out alone though.”

            “Was he carrying someone?”

            Moblit shook his head. “He was pointing a gun at someone. I think. He made them walk. Then he got in the car and left.”

            “All right, Nile might be alive.” Hanji said to Erwin.

            “Yes, and I might be a mermaid.” Erwin responded.

            “Okay, Moblit. We’re going to go down there. Why don’t you stay here and tell us if Levi comes back?”

            “All right.”

            Moblit opened the driver side door, and exited. He nodded his head to Hanji, who turned and nodded her head to Erwin. Erwin got inside the driver seat. Moblit was clutching his laptop, and walked back to the room.

            “Moblit, are the camera’s still looping?”

            He nodded. “I’ll disable them soon. His wife will be home from dropping off their children.”

            “All right.” Hanji sighed.

            “I don’t think we should go in there without some guns at least.”

            “Hopefully we don’t have to go in there.” Hanji replied. “But you’re right.” She went back to her room, and came out with a revolver and her knife strapped to her thigh. She slid into the passenger seat.

            “Only Levi would do this.” Erwin huffed.

            “I can’t blame him.” Hanji replied.

            Erwin looked at her as he started the car. “What do you mean? He could’ve murdered Nile by now. I’m pretty sure it’s all right to find some fault in that… what was he thinking going in by himself?”

            “You haven’t even tried to imagine what he must be thinking, have you?” Hanji huffed. “He was so confused when you disappeared. He almost went batshit. Christ, Erwin, he probably wants revenge for whoever made him feel that way—he’s not going to take it out on you.”

            “He may as well, it’d be better me than anyone else.” Erwin huffed. “If he hated me so much I don’t know why he’s doing this.”

            “He's doing this because he likes you, idiot.” Hanji snapped in response. Erwin glanced over, and hit the brake when he realized he was still going. They came to a stop at the red streetlight. He stared at Hanji for a few seconds like she had gone insane. She only returned a very angry, Levi-esque look.

            “Look, you weren’t there yesterday. Before you called us, he almost killed me out in the middle of the desert… And he had a good reason.” Erwin sighed, leaning on the steering wheel.

            “Yeah, I wasn’t there. And you weren’t there for the past five years.” Hanji sighed. “Erwin, every time we even thought about meeting up Levi said he was going to wait until you showed. Until you explained yourself. He was always waiting for you. That combined with what happened to Nanaba was why we never got back together. We really thought you set us up. Even I thought it; until Levi talked to me last night. He said someone set _you_ up. He probably just feels bad for being angry with you, and wants to take it out on someone else. Someone he thinks deserves it or some shit like that. You know how self-righteous he is.”

            Erwin sighed, the drive was not going fast, they had just missed the early morning and was hit with late traffic. Hanji glanced around while they barely did thirty in a shiny black Bugatti. Erwin could only assume she was checking for carjackers, but Erwin had a better eye for it.

            “You really think that’s why?”

            “Hell if I know.” Hanji replied. “I just figure, Levi’s kind of nuts, okay? You knew that when you signed up for this shit. I wouldn’t doubt it… He was really worried about you.”

            “It sure didn’t feel like it when we met up again.” Erwin replied.

            “Of course not. He doesn’t know how to say what he’s feeling. It probably scared him back to being sane for a moment. He was actually doing well with the police believe it or not.”

            “I guess I came along and ruined it.”

            “No. We were all fucked up from day one. When we got split up, we got thrown all over the map. We have to get back into the swing of things is all, and Levi, well, he likes to take extreme approaches. He’s not exactly someone who eases into something. He goes cold turkey.”

            “I hope he didn’t kill him…” Erwin can only think of that. The last thing Levi needed was more trouble. The drive went on a slow crawl for ten minutes. Erwin glanced constantly at the clock in the car, wondering how much time they had, if there was even time left. Twice they had to pull over on the shoulder of the road. Both times it was two cop cars speeding down the highway. Erwin knew they were getting closer to Long Beach.

            A cellphone began to ring. Hanji reached into her pocket, placing it at her ear.

            “Moblit?” she asked.

            “Hanji?” He responded.

            “What is it?”

            “I turned the camera’s back on to see what’s happening. Don’t go.”

            “What? Why? What do you mean don’t go?”

            “His house is surrounded by police cars.”

            “What?” Hanji sat up straight.

            “There’s at least five over there.” Moblit explained. “He’s talking to them. It looks like he’s freaking out.”

            “Who is?”

            “Nile Dawk.”

            “He’s still at the house?”

            “Who? Levi?” Erwin piped up. He turned down the road where he knew was Nile’s neighborhood. Hillside, with scenic views of the beach.

            “No. Nile.”

            Erwin looked confused.

            “Then who did Moblit see Levi taking?”

            “I don’t know.” Hanji huffed. “Moblit, who did Levi take?”

            “I’m not sure.” Moblit replied. “I didn’t look. I just saw Levi put them in the car.”

            “Well, we’re going to drive by and find out.”

            “Don’t let Nile see Erwin.” Moblit warned. “I looked them up. Nile will definitely not take kindly to seeing him. Did you know he used to jack cars for Nile?”

            “Yes, Moblit, I knew that.” Hanji huffed, and set the phone in her lap. “The place is covered in police.” She explained. “Just drive by slow—lean your head back, so he doesn’t see.”

            Erwin nodded. It didn’t take long to figure out. There was a policeman ushering people away from the driveway. Famous people lived around the area, paparazzi and confused tourist were scattered all around, wondering what had happened, and wondering if they could make a buck on a story. Nile had quite a reputation after all. Camera flashes were happening by the gate. Hanji rolled the window down, and Erwin drove around the coned off area slow.

            “Sir, this camera seems to have been busted too… there’s no footage on any of these things.”

            “I don’t fucking care!” Nile’s voice was apparent. “The car is still here. She’s gone. You better find my fucking wife!”

            “We’re doing are best sir.”

            “You’re doing fucking nothing!” Nile’s words couldn’t help turning Erwin’s head. Nile didn’t look very changed. Still thin cheekbones, his hair was pitch black—dyed, probably. Erwin kept driving. His face was bright red, and he was shouting still as they kept driving, but whatever he said was drowned with the sound of cameras and chattering. Hanji shook her head.

            “You don’t think.”

            “He took Marie.” Erwin said aloud. “He took his wife.” Erwin had half a mind to just drive into the ocean at this point. “If he killed her—”

            “He wouldn’t!”

            “You said he was a nut.” Erwin snapped.  “If he did… damn it. Ask Moblit where he is.”

            “Moblit? Do you have any idea where Levi might have gone?”

            “He didn’t say.” Moblit responded. “But I can try plug into the street cameras and—”

            “Do it!”

            “Okay. Give me a second—” Hanji heard typing and clicking in the background. “Give me another second…”

            “Just tell me when you get something! When did he leave?”

            “At least an hour and a half ago.” Moblit replied. “I’ll look at cameras from that time ago…”

            “He could’ve killed her by now.” Erwin said aloud.

            “Just calm down.” Hanji huffed. “We’ll find them. I’m sure Levi will explain. It’ll be fine.”

            “Don’t act so hopeful.” Erwin sighed. “Moblit, give us a direction!”

            Hanji picked the phone up and put it on speaker.

            “Um, it looks like a White Sedan exited the first East Neapolitan Lane, onto The Toledo, and onto the East Second street.”

            “Where are those places?” Hanji asked.

            “I know.” Erwin slammed the brake, throwing Hanji forward and up before she pushed herself back against the seat. “Which direction did they go?”

            “You can only take a right, I think.”

            “Good enough. Keep following.”

            Erwin turned the car, heading down the directions Moblit told him. The tires left a cloud of smoke, and they hadn’t forgotten the Bugatti had to be one of the loudest cars when it got fast. Moblit told them a few other mentions, but as soon as it hit the highway, there was at least a dozen white Sedans heading in different directions.

            “Oh, god, I hope she’s alive.”

            Hanji glanced at him for a long moment. Her hand clutching the cellphone, she glanced forward seeing there could be dozens of other white Sedans still driving all over the place. Her words came with a crushing weight of reality, and a worry over Levi's thought process. “Well, whatever happened, there’s nothing anyone can do, now.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed please leave a comment or a kudos, it means a whole lot to me.


	5. Chapter 5

Driving around East Second street was only getting more and more pointless as time went on. Even if Moblit could pinpoint which way Levi went, it had been two hours since he took Marie. Anything could’ve happened by now. Erwin’s hand was clutching the wheel so tight his knuckles turned white.

            “He could’ve let her go somewhere.” Hanji was constantly throwing ideas out that Levi could’ve considered other than murder; but it was falling on deaf ears. After they went around the spaghetti junction a third time, Hanji just sighed.

            “This isn’t going to do anything. We’re just going to get caught in traffic.” Hanji huffed.

            “Then what do you suppose we do?” Erwin stared forward at oncoming traffic.

            “Well, at best, we should just make a decision. Where do you think Levi would go?”

            “How should I know?”

            “You knew him better than the rest of us—and trust me, that’s true.” Hanji said. She rubbed the bridge of her nose. Erwin glanced down at himself, and sighed.

            “I’ve been out too long. I don’t know.” Erwin said. “He could be in Imperial County by now.”

            “Would he have a reason to go there?”

            “No. Unless he was fleeing the country, and I doubt that.”

            “Well, where would he be then?”

            Erwin pursed his lips. After a moment of reflecting, Erwin let out a sigh. He stared down the highway, and turned sharp to the right of the road, catching the nearest exit lane. Hanji shifted in her seat.

            “You still think he’s here.”

            “I have one idea.” Erwin explained. He pumped the brakes, the Bugatti was starting to squeal at any sudden harsh move, and Erwin had a feeling it was lack of maintenance. He glanced up, looking around, and started heading down towards the beach.

            “It’s sort of where Levi and I ended our first… date. If you can call it that.” Erwin remarked. “It’s an old garage attached to some old automotive shop.”

            “Is that the place he chained you to a shelf buck naked?”

            “I see he told people about that…” Erwin knit his brows. He wasn’t in the mood to be even amused at the notion. Everything felt raw and private when it came to their relationship as of late. Levi’s words from yesterday were still stinging him. He drove, and came down towards the beach, which was surprisingly not that crowded. Erwin turned towards the small parking garage he used to store cars in, but it was locked up.

            “I lost the key to it years ago.” Erwin huffed.

            “Well, if you can’t get in, then Levi won’t be there either.”

            “You’re right.” Erwin parked the car in front of the garage. It looked like it hadn’t been used in a while. Already littered with graffiti on the walls and door of it. He sat there for a moment, massaging the bridge of his nose with his fingers. He sighed, and shifted back in his seat.

            “Can you think of any other place he’d go?” Hanji asked.

            Erwin kept his eyes shut, his hand still pinching between his eyes. He sat up.

            “The only other place he knows would be my old house.” Erwin remarked.

            “Well, let’s go there.”

            “He would’ve already gone and left by now. It’s not my house anymore, it got foreclosed when everything got stolen off me. They probably built a new one already, knowing this place.”

            “Well, then, we got nothing Erwin. Let’s head back to the motel and see if he comes back.” Hanji huffed. “There’s nothing we can do.”

            Erwin felt childish, for a small moment. He wanted to argue, to resist it, to keep searching. He was tired of there always being nothing he could do. Trapped in their own cycle, so powerful, the thrill and reward of stealing had made them who they were, yet they were so fragile still. He hit his fist on the steering wheel.

            “All right… you’re right.” Erwin drove back to the motel. There were cops going around, and Erwin couldn’t help feeling on edge whenever he saw one. Eventually they came back to the motel, and found Moblit, sitting by his setup, still with his CD player and headset. Erwin sat down on the adjacent bed, and sighed. Hanji pulled up a chair, and sat beside the small table in the corner. Moblit glanced at the two of them. He stared for a long moment, then pulled the headset off.

            “Did you find him?”

            “What does it look like, Moblit?” Erwin replied.

            “I’m not sure. You look disappointed.”

            “We didn’t find him.” Hanji interjected. “We have no idea where he would’ve gone.”

            “So we will wait?”

            “Pretty much.” Erwin sighed.

            Nothing to pass the time but festering thoughts. Moblit was busy playing his invisible piano along with his CD player. Hanji was just sitting on her chair, staring at the cellphone, and Erwin was busy thinking of all the things Levi could’ve done, all the places he could be by now. He started thinking of all the places he must’ve been in the past five years. He had aged well. Erwin wanted to say he was a fan of the bit of grey in Levi’s hair, but now was not really the time anymore. It didn’t feel like there’d ever be a time. Erwin let the time sink into his skin, and into his mind.

            Hanji’s cellphone began to ring. Erwin shot up, and Hanji couldn’t grab the phone fast enough.

            “Hello? Levi?” Hanji asked.

            “Hanji.” Levi’s voice came in.

            “Oh thank goodness it’s you.”

            “Levi’s there?” Erwin asked.

            “Levi, where are you right now? Are you okay? Did you take Marie?”

            “Did you kill her?” Erwin asked outloud, but Levi didn’t catch it.

            “I see you’re all on top of it… fuck. I fucked up.” Levi hissed. “Yeah, I took Marie. Just come down here. I need to talk in person. Not on the phone. Tell Erwin to drive down to Balboa Park, the Alcazar Garden. He’ll know where it is.”

            “Is she okay?”

            The line went flat.

            “Levi?” Hanji huffed and hung up.

            “What did he say?” Erwin asked.

            “He said he took Marie. Wanted to talk in person.”

            “Where?”

            “Um, Balboa? In the Alcazar Garden. That’s what he said.”

            “San Diego? Christ…” Erwin shook his head. “If he was heading that far south he might have actually been trying to flee the country… should I give any guesses why?”

            “He said he took Marie.” Hanji repeated.

            “He didn’t say she was alive.”

            Hanji rolled her eyes. “Let’s get moving.” She packed up her gun, and went over to Moblit to tap his headset. “We’re going. Get up or stay here.”

            Moblit saw Hanji, and rose up to his feet. The three of them found their place in the Bugatti. Moblit took a good five minutes to go get all of his things and take it into the car. “I don’t like leaving it behind.” Was his reasoning. Erwin was sitting there, tapping his foot on the pavement, with the other foot in the car, leaning against the seat. Moblit had all of his bulky equipment together, and was putting it away when Erwin threw the car in reverse and burned rubber trying to peel out of the motel parking long.

            “Hey!” Moblit shouted, if you could call it that, his voice was still small.

            “You’re wasting time.” Erwin huffed. “A woman could be dead because of us idling.”

            Moblit seemed genuinely offended, and held the computer brain tightly to his chest. He didn’t speak to Erwin, instead turning to Hanji and mumbled. “You guys have some strange ethics…”

            “It’s him, not me.” Hanji corrected. “He didn’t mean it, so don’t get mad. Is your equipment okay?”

            Moblit released the computer brain, and inspected it. He looked around at the things at his feet as well as on the seat beside him. Erwin rolled his eyes, and just continued to push the gas, speeding as fast as he could go.

            After an unfortunate traffic pile during lunch hour and a bad accident on the I-5, it took them well into the afternoon to get to San Diego. The sun was blistering, the humidity was getting worse this time of year, and Erwin hadn’t had time to adjust to being in the heat of Southern California ever since he got back to America. He had been all over the states for the last year. They arrived in the parking lot of Balboa Park, there was some people enjoying the gardens, or walking around the area. Erwin looked around the lot, and halted the car.

            Levi had exited the Sedan, and was at the hood of the car, arms folded, head tilted, one leg crossed over the other as he rested his hips on the car. Erwin came directly in front of the car, and parked in front of it, so it would be impossible to drive away. He exited the Bugatti and walked over to the Levi.

            “Where is she.” Erwin felt his military voice come back, and his stomach twisted at the thought. However, it didn’t change Levi, he still looked pissed, his eyes were narrowed.

            “I messed up okay? I just… fuck.” Levi raised his hands and threw them down dejected. “Fuck, I didn’t mean to do it, I just—”

            “Did you kill her?” Erwin stressed.

            “No! Fuck! What, do you think I’m fucking psychotic?” Levi barked back loud enough to have some of the people in the garden turn and look, or try to hide their face as they walked away a bit quicker. “I didn’t kill her you fuck.”

            Erwin sighed deep. “Christ, Levi, what were you thinking? Where did you put her?”

            “She’s in the trunk.”

            “What!?”

            “Just relax! I left the A/C on, shit.” Levi turned around, and Erwin followed directly behind him. Levi fished the key from his pocket, and opened the trunk of the car, lifting it up.

            “Get out of there.” Levi huffed.

            Marie’s head popped up immediately. She was the same Erwin remembered. Thick, wavy black hair and light brown skin tanned darker by sunshine. She had her eyes open wide enough to show the flecks of green in her hazel eyes. She was slightly shaken looking, hair messy, no makeup, dressed up in a grey loose fitting dress with a blue bath robe over it - she had probably just woken up when Levi took her. She had wide hips, and a slight curve of her belly. She blinked, not looking very terrified, but more curious. Her eyes widened and Erwin, and she shifted her legs out, one of the shoes on her feet were missing.

            “Erwin!” she called out, her voice was bright and soft and familiar. She slipped out of the trunk, and threw her arms around him. Erwin still wasn’t used to the affection, and took it stiffly, but he gently put his arm on Marie’s back, and held her for a moment.

            “Marie.” He breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t look hurt, and she seemed relatively all right. He knew it was better to make sure. “Do you feel okay? Did you get hurt?”

            “No, no, I’m fine. Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in years.” Marie remarked. “You used to swing by all the time before.”

            “It’s a long story.” Erwin explained.

            “You should probably ask Nile.” Levi interjected. Marie turned around and faced Levi.

            “Really? Did he have something to do with it?”

            “He was working for Nile when he got stuck in Italy with nobody to help him out.”

            Marie turned on her heel, hair twisting towards one shoulder. She looked back at Erwin, her expression gone cheerful to serious. “Is that true?”

            “Yes.” Erwin responded calmly. “I sorted it out though, so it’s fine.”

            “It’s fine?” Levi hissed. “You were stuck for five years and it’s fine? I was gonna hold a gun to the man and you think it’s fine!?”

            “Levi, you held a gun to a woman who is three months pregnant and shoved her in the trunk of your car!” Erwin argued. “I told you I wanted to talk, not go crazy.”

            “We did talk. And the trunk was her idea.” Levi huffed.

            “You—what?” Erwin stared at Levi, and back to Marie, who was nodding.

            “I know how Nile gets. He would over-react and that’s the last thing I need right now. Levi was very considerate. So I knew it would be easier to get away if I hid.” Marie explained. “I didn’t know it was all this though… I need to have a talk with him.”

            “Like I said.” Levi remarked. “Nothing against you. I just might have to hold you hostage for a bit while things tone down. I wouldn’t shoot you unless absolutely necessary, and it would most likely never be necessary, but, just in case, at least you know.”

            “I appreciate your candor.” Marie put her fingers to Levi’s cheeks and pinched. Erwin went stiff, and watched Levi. His eyelid twitched, but in general he didn’t react to Marie’s touch the way he usually did to other people touching him. She sat down again at the edge of the trunk and sighed.

            “So… you’re okay with this?” Hanji spoke up.

            “Well, nothing I can do really.” Marie replied. “My husband will probably explode about it, so better give it some time… I haven’t been out here in a while.” She looked up and around at the gardens. “I got married here, remember?” she glanced up to Erwin.

            Erwin glanced around, and nodded. “I remember. It was a while back.”

            “I’d love to catch up and all, but we still have a problem.” Levi interjected. “What do we do about Nile and the cops?”

            “I’ll take care of it. I’ll call him.” Marie replied. “I’ll explain what you told me, and we’ll try and work something out.”

            “Well, from what you said, sounds like Nile would go behind your back and kill us even if you ask him not to.”

            Marie sighed. “He’s hotheaded that way.” She tilted her head. “Well… he could use some stress anyway. All this time I’ve told him we should take a break and go out sometimes, but now the only time I go out is when some kidnapper takes me. I hope he’s thinking about that.”

            “We can let him think about it as long as you want.” Levi replied.

            “Look, regardless, we need to get out of this situation.” Erwin huffed.

            “Hey.” Levi turned his head. “The reason we even did this is so we could talk to Nile. Well? We got the perfect person to help us get in touch with him.”

            “The reason _you_ did this is because you are a lunatic.” Erwin returned. “And I hope I don’t have to tell you to apologize.”

            “I’m not a child.”

            “He did apologize.” Marie replied. “We had a good talk together while I we were in the car.”

            Erwin and Hanji raised their brows, looking to Levi.

            “What?” Levi snapped.

            “I think there’s a lot to be said. What exactly is the situation though?” Marie asked.

            “Your husband—Erwin’s boss, sent him to Italy for cars. He got fucked, and Nile cut him off. So he was trapped in Europe for four years.”

            “More like three, I had some time in Macau before I got back to the United States.”

            “Whatever—anyway, we wanted to talk to your husband, but admittedly some shit got out of hand and I might have over-reacted.” Levi raised his hands defensively. Marie was listening intently to the two of them, she seemed concerned about the story.

            “You must’ve been through a lot—if only I knew.” Marie huffed. “We will definitely be talking to Nile.”

            “Not any time soon.” Erwin replied. “If we don’t let him cool down then he’ll just send in a SWAT team to obliterate us.”

            “Well.” Marie nodded her head. “I can wait it out. So long as you don’t mind.”

            “If we’re going to do that then you better keep moving. Last thing we need is Nile catching up.” Hanji added. “We better have a plan if this is our idea.”

            “I’ll call him.” Marie decided. “Tomorrow. Maybe it’ll sink in for him, and then I’ll talk to him.”

            “We hostage negotiating our situation out?” Levi huffed. “Well then weʻre as good as dead.”

            “Donʻt worry, I wonʻt let Nile hurt you. Iʻll stay between you two and him.” Marie pressed her lips. “In the meantime, we can go to San Bernadino. I know I place to stay. A place Nile wouldnʻt ever check to look.”

            “Where is that?”

            “My parents house.”

            Levi rolled his eyes. “Iʻll take you there then. We can work out the plan together.”

            “Wait, no, youʻre not taking Marie, youʻve already traumatized her enough.”

            “From what?”

            “You held a gun at her and shoved her into the trunk of your car.”

            “That last part really was my idea.” Marie confessed. “You know, heʻs a gentleman, this guy.” She gestured to Levi.

            Erwin stared at her for a long time.

            “I think he mightʻve made you go insane.”

            “He really is! I enjoy talking to you and your friends. You have an interesting lifestyle and all. Reposessing vehicles can be really dangerous I hear. To think my husband put you on such a risky job...” She folded her arms. “We have a lot to talk about.”

            “I’ll be there when you have your little heart to heart with your husband.” Levi offered.

            “I was hoping so. You’re very kind.” She was affectionate, patting his head since he was about half a foot shorter than her. Levi pressed his lips, but again, it seemed he held back when he’d usually get very easily enraged.

            “So let’s get this plan straightened out.” Hanji spoke up. “In order to not die as quickly, at least, to the best of our abilities, we’re going to lose the immediate heat. Me and Erwin are going to head back to the Motel pretend we aren’t here—”

            “What?” Erwin interjected.

            Hanji elected to ignore him. “We’ll meet up later. It’ll be better for us to not stick around. A white sedan isn’t suspicious, but a Black Bugatti is going to get someone’s attention. Especially Nile’s after everything we’ve been through.” Hanji continued.

            “I’ll try to calm him down. I’m sure one night without me won’t be too long.” Marie added. “But it’ll be long enough for him to think about me a bit more.”

            Hanji nodded her head. “If it’s any consolation, your husband looked like he was about to blow a gasket when we saw him with the cops.”

            Marie smiled a small bit, but it was gone, she couldn’t help being worried still. “Well, it’s nice to hear he’s worried… but, back to the task at hand. Once I call him, he’ll try to trace the call, so I'll wait until the last second. I’ll make it at my parents’ house. Then we can leave. I’ll let him know we’re coming… what exactly did you want to talk to him about?”

            Erwin realized they went silent, and Marie was staring at him.

            “Nile sent him out there and fucked him over. We want to know why.” Levi hissed. “And on top of it, I want to know what he intends to compensate us with. Erwin lost everything, his house, his cars, his money, even some of his shitty prosthetic arms. He’s been scrounging around for the past five years trying to piece himself together, but he’s a pathetic sack a shit, look at him.”

            Marie turned to Erwin, looking over the bandage and staples in his face, and the bruises that had started to fade over the past days. Erwin had slept, but he didn’t feel well rested. She reached up, and cupped his face in her smaller hands. “You poor thing… oh, if I knew about this—Nile is going to get it from me.” She put her hands on her hips, arms akimbo. She smiled, confident, eyebrows knit. “We’ll sort this out. Don’t you worry about it.”

            “So, should we take you to your parents’ house?”

            “Levi was kind enough to offer to drive me anywhere before we got here.” Marie gestured to him. "I wanted to tag along though, after I found out how sweet he is."

            “Him?” Erwin asked, glancing to Levi. "Sweet?"

            “Yes, Erwin, some people like to communicate.” Levi hissed, arms folded as he leaned towards the other. “It lets other people know what is going on. Some people also like to have plans. Might be a new thing for you, so don’t try to take it all in at the same time.”

            Erwin stared back at Levi, and Hanji stepped in between. “Well, then I guess we have a plan. You’ll fill us in on the details?”

            “I’ll do my best.” Marie declared. “I’ll try to make sure we can meet up somewhere open. Nile can fly off the handle, so let’s have that not happen. I’ll make sure he’ll hear you guys out.”

            She turned to Erwin. “Take care of yourself.”

            She reached out to hug him, and Erwin looked worried. “Shouldn’t we all be going with you?”

            “Just me and Levi should be fine.” Marie replied.

            “Have some faith in me, you fuck.” Levi hissed.

            Marie turned her head to the side so Levi could see the left side of her face. “Language.”

            Levi grit his teeth. “Right.”

            “We’ll work on it before we get to my parents.”

            “Let’s go then.” Levi shifted off the hood, and walked over to the driver side.

            “So you called us all the way out here to have us go back?”

            “Pretty much.” Levi replied. “I can’t trust that my phone is as reliable as you say. Marie said Nile could be doing anything, so I don't trust it at the moment. Plus, I needed to see you all face to face to make sure you were here.”

            “You think we’d run away or something?” Erwin asked.

            “Wouldn’t be the first time, now would it?”

            “It wasn’t on purpose.”

            “I wasn’t talking about that.” Levi hissed. “You know when the first time was.”

            Erwin stared. He saw a glint in Levi’s eyes, and stiffened his shoulders.

            “Can we deal with your lovers quarrel later?” Hanji cut in. “We have work to do. And we have Marie to thank for the help. Hopefully this will go smoother than our original plan.”

            Erwin was silent for a while. He sighed, and turned away from Levi. “All right. We head back to the motel. Levi, you have our number. Just keep us updated—and for the love of all things holy don’t take any more people hostage or inflict anymore injuries.”

            “Try not to emotionally damage anyone yourself.”

            “We know you’re both going to fail, so just get in the car.” Hanji huffed. “Sorry about all this Marie.”

            “Not to worry.” Marie waved her hand dismissively. “It’s exciting. I haven’t really been getting out of the house since my second kid…”

            “Well, let’s go.” Levi replied. “You can sit in the passenger seat this time.”

            Marie found this more amusing than anything, though Erwin certainly didn’t. Marie opened the passenger side door, and slid in, settling in the front. Levi started the car, there was a Spanish music station playing. Marie said something Erwin didn’t fully understand, and Levi responded. He rolled down the window.

            “You gonna move?” Levi gestured to the Bugatti.

            “Relax.” Erwin huffed. He climbed back inside the cab. Hanji entered the car, and the three of them drove off. Moblit pulled off his headset, looking between both of them.

            “That went well. Right?”

            “Yeah.” Erwin replied, and glanced back, watching Levi and Marie take the Sedan in the other direction. “Let’s hope it stays that way.”

* * *

“¿Y ese era tu novio? ¿Erwin?” Marie was sitting with her hand on her knee, gently plucking the hem of her dress. She was smiling soft, tilting her head as she looked to Levi. The two were sitting in the Sedan, driving out more towards the Northeast while the Bugatti headed in the other direction. Levi had his hand clutching the steering wheel, grip tightening. Marie noticed Levi scowling, but her smile didn’t diminish.

            “Ex novio.” Levi huffed.

            “¿A poco?”

            “Sí…” Levi sighed. “Esta historia es larga de contar.” He hissed slightly, and turned away from Marie. “I don’t want to talk about him, okay?”

            Marie nodded sympathetically. Levi didn’t say anything, just clutching the wheel tight enough to turn his knuckles white. “Would you rather I speak English?” she asked.

            “No.” Levi huffed. “I just—I can’t even think in that language if I’m thinking about him.”

            “Why is that?”

            “I’d like to keep the last couple of good memories I have in that language. Thank you.”

            Marie turned her head, and leaned on the headrest. “You must care about him. You talk about him all the time.”

            “I only talk about him because he’s ruining my life.”

            “I know the feeling.” She tilted her head. “May I ask what happened?”

            Levi meant to shoot her a look, but something about the way she was, the way her jawline was formed, the way she did her hair, it took one look at he couldn’t get mad like he usually did. Worried, maybe, but not mad. He sighed again, turning his head away. He turned the car smooth into the far right lane, and slowed down. The Bugatti had taken off in the other direction, and Levi could see just the hint of shine on that immaculate looking jet black car. He turned his head, and let his neck turn until he felt the bones in the nape of his neck pop.

            “He cheated on me.” Levi mumbled. “And then he disappeared. And now he claims he wasn’t even sure if we were dating in the first place.”

            “Ah.” Marie shook her head. “He slept with another man?”

            “Women.” Levi corrected. “I don’t care if he wants to fuck other people, that’s his deal, but he could’ve had the decency to tell me.”

            Marie narrowed her eyes a bit more. “Oh… so you don’t care about him cheating. You just want him to communicate.”

            Levi didn’t respond. He shrugged his shoulders, feeling for a moment that she could be right.

            “I know the feeling.” Marie replied. “Nile gets that way. He doesn’t cheat. At least, I assume. But he’s a compulsive liar, and he won’t tell me things until the last minute. I think he thinks he can make it up with gifts, but it doesn’t work that way. He’s rich, I know, and we’re lucky, but it makes him busy. Board meeting here, conference there, last minute flight to New York here, make up trip to Belize there.” She sighed. “Sometimes I’d rather be broke if we could spend more time together.”

            Levi felt his stomach twinge, but it only caused his face to contort into a scowl again.

            “I wonder that too sometimes.” Levi mumbled.

            Marie could tell Levi was shying away from the topic, and she noted he wasn’t good at sticking to them anyway. She changed back to another topic for the sake of some conversation.

            “How do you know español, Levi?” Marie asked.

            Levi pressed his lips. “My mother.” He said shortly. “She’s from Guadalajara. Moved to the States for… work.”

            “Oh. Did your father speak it too? Or was he American?”

            Levi shrugged. “I don’t know. Never met him.”

            Marie opened her eyes slight. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

            “I’m not.” Levi huffed. “You get over it. The only reason I’d feel sorry was the stress my mother got from me. I was a piece of shit. Made trouble all the time, the neighbors called me a _pinche pendejo_  and they weren’t wrong.” Marie flinched a little when Levi said it, but she had been reacting that way to most of his cussing. “I liked to steal their shit. Got my mom into shitty situations all the time…” Levi looked down at the steering wheel.

            “I guess I didn’t change.” He mumbled. “Still stealing shit. Except I’m not doing it for good reasons anymore.”

            “Good reasons? You had a good reason to steal?”

            “My mom deserved better.” Levi felt his voice getting small, but he couldn’t really stop himself from saying it. Marie was having a certain effect on him. “She deserved a better. But you don’t better by earning it. You have to take it. I wish she’d just fuckin take it—” He grit his teeth, and a string of cusswords left him in Spanish. Marie cringed hearing it, but she looked saddened, and placed her hand on Levi’s shoulder.

            “She must be proud of you now.” Marie was gentle, so not to get Levi worked up. “You’ve come far, haven’t you? Captain of the police isn’t nothing to shake your head at. She’d be proud of your achievements.”

            “She wouldn’t be proud of anyone because she dropped dead.” Levi snapped, and immediately regret it. Marie released his shoulder, and he felt like the pain in his shoulders suddenly felt more intense. He felt an urge to lean over, relax against someone, and he had not felt that way in decades—it was incredibly concerning to him.

            “I’m sorry.” Marie was clutching her hands together. “I didn’t know…”

            “Of course you didn’t fuckin know, I didn’t tell you.” Levi hissed. “Look, I… I appreciate it. You’ve been taking this all considerably well, especially since I threatened to gut you a few hours ago.”

            Marie had both her hands on her stomach, clutching tight. She glanced down.

            “You were going to do it, right?” she asked. “Until you saw me.”

            Levi glanced at her, noticing where her hands had fallen. “Maybe… maybe I would’ve shot Nile to death and left you to fend for yourself. But you didn’t do anything wrong to me. Not as far as I know.”

            Marie nodded. “It’s okay. It’s not the first time someone threatened our family’s life. Nile makes a lot of enemies. Half from work, half from his attitude. I like your honesty. You have some sort of… moral, in a way. So I know you’re not all bad.”

            “You’d be absolutely wrong, but I appreciate it.” Levi countered. “Let’s not talk about me. What’s your plan, anyway?”

            “With Nile?” Marie nodded. “I’ll show you how to get to my parents’ house. I’ll call him from there. I’ll tell him I’m fine… that I left on purpose. That I want him to listen to me and take me seriously. Does that sound all right?”

            “You know how he tics, so, if you think so.” Levi returned.

            “All right. You said our cameras are busted, right? So I’ll tell him I did that. So he couldn’t tell who I went with…”

            “You want to lie that much?”

            “The truth is going to sound way worse, Levi.”

            Levi shrugged. “Fair enough.”

            “Well, if he believes me or not, I’ll see. But I’ll tell him where to come pick me up. Invite Erwin and his friends. You guys wanted to talk to Nile. So I’ll help you do that. I’ll make sure he listens to you. It’s the least I can do.”

            “The least you could do? I held you at gunpoint and took you on a three-hour drive. I’m pretty sure the least you could do is call the cops and run.”

            “You don’t seem scary.” Marie replied. “Maybe I’m crazy, but I think you’re a nice person. But you’re hurt. And it’s not petty, you should let yourself feel hurt. I know your type. You block people out, and then one day you let someone in, and they see all sorts of parts of you. Parts you can’t see yourself. And then they go and you feel stupid for ever actually letting someone in.” Marie swirled her index finger on her knee. She seemed to speak from experience, or from watching another, and Levi wasn’t sure which it was, or if he wanted to find out. Those sorts of times weren’t moments people wanted to talk about willingly.

            “How do you stay married to a jackass like Nile?”

            Marie lifted her head. “He’s lovely when he’s being himself.” She said immediately. “I met him a while back, with Erwin. We used to go to this bar. In Los Angeles. And then they tore it down. I don’t like Nile’s job, but he doesn’t like it either. But money makes the world go round. And he says we should bear with him until he can retire.”

            Levi twitched. “You can do better.” He remarked.

            “Maybe you think so.” Marie remarked. “Maybe I think so too. But the Nile I know is better than anyone else I can think of… he just never has time. To be that Nile I knew.”

            Levi stayed silent. When they stopped, he just listened to the base of the song on the radio, before he reached over and shut it off. “I know someone like that.”

            “Yeah. I know you do.” Marie smiled slight. “Hey, do you think we could stop somewhere?”

            “Sure. Where?”

            “The next left turn, then up the road. I’ll tell you when to stop.”

            Levi listened, and drove steadily, the road twisted upwards, towards the top of a hillside. In the distance there was a lot of tall houses with iron beams holding them up as they jutted out of the side of the hill. Marie led him up, and out, past the houses, towards the top of the winding hill. There were some scattered trees, and the road depleted into a dirt trail, and he became bit suspicious, and asked Marie where exactly it was they were going.

            “You’ll see.”

            “I know I will. What will I be seeing?”

            “Depends. I just want to talk with you a little.”

            “You have an absurd amount of trust in me.”

            “I guess so.” Marie replied. “But I can believe in you for a little bit, right? If not, there’s nothing I can do anyway.”

            Levi sighed. He stopped where she told him. There were thin blades of grass, and tufts of weeds and sandy dirt. They weren’t too far from Cleveland forest, and Marie exited the car and stood out by the edge of the hill.

            “Be careful.” Levi warned, and pulled himself out of the car.

            “I am.” She replied, and put her feet so close to the edge her toes seemed to be hanging off. Levi came up close.

            “Don’t get suicidal on me.” He hissed. Marie laughed, and held her stomach.

            “Not a chance.” She replied.

            There was a large view. It was clear, hard to believe that they were so close to the smog of Los Angeles. Levi could see the earth beneath for miles, and the park seemed to spread infinitely. The wind shook the grass, and the dandelions and other weeds swayed and bowed. Marie stepped back, and sat on the hood of the car.

            “Erwin brought me here. On our first date.”

            Levi stiffened.

            “You dated Erwin?” he asked.

            “Mh-hm.” She nodded. “I’m pretty sure he knew he wasn’t into girls already but my parents set him up and he wanted to be a gentleman and not bow out.”

            “That was before he lost his arm.” She mumbled. “Nile barely made it past basic training and he quit, only went to the military cause his father was going to cut him off if he didn’t. I met them drunk in the bar close to the station, and then I met him sober when he decided to get his paperwork and leave.”

            “You were in the military?” Levi asked with a bit of surprise. Marie put her hand in the collar of her dress, and pulled out two shiny metal dog tags.

            “Ended up behind a desk, but, I was a nurse for a while.” She replied. “Now I’m a house mom, and I barely see my husband. So I guess I got my American dream.”

            “Fought that long for this shit, huh?” Levi huffed. “This fuckin country.”

            “I wouldn’t take it back.” Marie replied. “Life is strange… Erwin took me up here, and admitted he had no interest and hoped I understood and told me Nile was much more interested in me, but Erwin didn’t want my feelings to be hurt by rejecting a date... He was alone for a while. Nile told me he got a boyfriend a few years back… said something about him leaving Erwin handcuffed buck naked to a shelf.”

            Levi tried to hold back a small smile. “Yeah. We had a very good two-day long date of death threats and joyriding.”

            “I think you’re just the thing Erwin needs.” Marie remarked. “Someone who’s going to stick around, even if he pushes you back. He can’t give himself what he wants. He doesn’t even know what it is. Nile’s the same sometimes. He doesn’t realize how much he needs you until you go.”

            “Erwin was the one who left me.”

            “He didn’t mean to right? Getting framed, going through all this… he’s probably not too bright in this category, I know his type. He must’ve wanted to see you for so long. I don’t know if he’d stick around otherwise. Maybe he wasn’t good at communicating, but I know he was someone who went around and manipulated and abandon people, so it’s strange that he came back to you so often.”

            Levi glanced down at himself. For a moment the two of them were quiet. He groaned and shut his eyes, covering his face with his hands. Marie put her hand over his back, patting his side softly. Levi allowed her to do so.

            “Why don’t you tell me where this all started? And I’ll tell you what I think you should do.”

            “With the crimes?”

            “With your relationship.” Marie replied. “I’m not a shrink, but I’ll do my best.”

            “Where did it start? Hell, I could start with us fuckin in a motel, or robbing a store now and again on and off for two years with his buddies. Or our friends getting fucked up and then him vanishing off the face of the earth for no good goddamn reason, and now here he is, all sorry, all sad, wishing he could make everything up and make it all good again when it’s all fucked. He doesn’t get it, it’s just fucked.” Levi hit his fist down on the hood of the car, but it hurts his hand more than the fiberglass frame.

            “Maybe you two can find a different way to fix things.” Marie replied. “I don’t know how; it doesn’t seem like you two solve your problems like… typical people would. He wants to do it the way you two would usually solve your disputes.”

            “It’s not supposed to be solved. Everything is supposed to stay unresolved. This whole situation is crazy—I told him, he’d have to kill me, or he’d go crazy. Now I’m just waiting…” Levi sighed, and shifted his head down, turning to look away from Marie.

            “Well, if it’s that way, then there’s nothing he can do to fix anything.” Marie replied. “It’s all unfixable and the only way to change it is to change how you feel.”

            “… I’m not sure I can do that.”

            “Sure you can. People change. We all do. Even if you don’t want it to happen. It happens. Life moves forward, and you either let go or get dragged.”

            Levi stared out at the forest beneath them. The wind rushed along the hillside, and rose up against them both. He scoffed, and dropped his feet back on the ground before sighing.

            “Suenas como ella también...” He mumbled.

            “¿Qué?” Marie turned her head.

            “Nothing. Let’s go. Before your husband sends a damn sniper at me.” Levi stood up quick, and seemed to have a shudder go down his spine, as if something cold hit him. He ran his fingers through his hair, noticing some grey hairs falling in front of his face. He sat down in the driver’s seat, worried Marie would say something about what he had uttered, but thankfully, she didn’t. They drove off down the hill, and Marie directed him towards the address of her parents’ house.

            For a long moment they sat there, the sound of wind against the glass windows, the smell of a well cleaned rental car. Levi left the radio off, and kept his eyes on the road. Marie shifted her legs, stretching her arms. She put her hands on her stomach.

            “She meant a lot to you, huh?”

            Levi squared his shoulders. He didn’t need specifics. He just stayed still for a long moment, and eventually sighed putting his hand on the scar crossing his eye.

            “Yeah. Maybe.” He mumbled.

            “Oh—Stop!” Marie suddenly threw her hand out, and Levi turned the car sharp to the shoulder of the road, and slammed on the brakes.

            “What?”

            “They’re kicking.” Marie put her hand on her stomach. Levi rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. She smiled, and held her hand out to Levi. He stared up at the ceiling for a long moment, and glanced over to her hand for a small moment.

            “What?”

            “Touch it.”

            “Why?”

            “Because, it’s good for the baby to meet people.”

            “How is it meeting me? I’m just touching it. It’s not even out yet.”

            “El tacto es la forma de comunicación más básica.”

            Levi rolled his eyes. He started to press the gas pedal to take off. Marie reached out and snatched his right hand. He didn’t resist her, so she guided his hand to the thin cloth of her dress, against her waist. Levi pushed the brakes soft so not to jostle them so violently like last time. Marie was glancing to him, a smile on her features. Levi’s eyebrows slowly fell from an angered expression to a much more neutral look. Underneath the thin fabric there was a very slight flutter. Her skin barely moved, and he really had to focus to feel any movement. Little nervous twitches came from under her skin. After a few moments, the movement ceased.

            “They stopped.” She spoke. “That wasn’t so bad, right?”

            “Seguro.” Levi huffed, and pulled his hand away. He put his hand back on the wheel, and started to drive again. Marie was smiling at him, and he tried to scowl again and look the same as before, but it went away from his features a little too easily. She still had that look on his face, and Levi gripped the steering wheel tight, feeling a ghost of warmth still on his hand. He didn’t say anything, and just drove to the house in San Bernardino. It looked how Levi expected. There was tall beige walls and red terracotta roof tiles, the house was two stories tall. There were two automatic garage doors. The grass was trimmed and green and there was a palm tree and birds of paradise at the front door. There was a terracotta rain barrel overflowing with maroon clematis. There was purple penstemon and yellow daisies and strawberry pink yarrows blossoming in the garden around the edge of the front porch. Marie called out to her parents in Spanish, and an older Mexican woman greeted them at the large front door. She looked like Marie, but shorter hair trimmed up to her ears, and wrinkles around her mouth and on her forehead.

She spoke English to Levi, but he responded in Spanish, and that was all it took. Mostly lies were exchanged, Nile was overreacting, Marie wasn’t actually missing like he said, just that Marie just went out with friends, Marie went as far as to say they had a fight so she wanted to take a break.

            Levi was invited to dinner, whether he wanted to or not.

            “Hey, comen, comen.” Marie’s mother was thrusting a plate into his hands before he could even speak.

            Marie’s father was a very sturdy looking man with a bristly mustache wearing flannel with a slightly balding head of black and white hair. Both Marie’s parents were immigrants. Levi knew, because they told him. He mentioned his mother was too, and he was as well. They told him how they regret Marie never grew up in Mexico, and how she didn’t even bother to learn Spanish until high school, much to Marie’s embarrassment. Marie’s mother went to warm up some food for them. When Levi could smell food cooking, he looked almost petrified. Marie tried to see if anything was wrong, but he denied it.

            Marie’s mother made birria, braised goat meat and chile. She explained how important it was to keep hold to your identity. Marie remarked how much she was preaching more than talking, so she decided not to go on too much. Her mother explained in Jalisco the dish was eaten everywhere.

            After a long moment, Levi looked down at the food. He seemed strangely pained by the sight of it. Marie asked him if anything was wrong, but Levi shrugged his shoulders. Marie’s mother touched his shoulder softly, and asked him if he did not like birria.

            “Trabajé antes en una birriería, con mi madre…” Levi replied, and shook his head, as if he was getting rid of something physically on him. Taking a few corn tortillas and slices of lime, as well as a scoop of beans and onions. Marie’s mother seemed overjoyed by his statement. She talked about Jalisco and Levi eventually opened up enough to talk about his mother, Kuchel, and how she once used to sell birria on the streets of Guadalajara. Marie’s mother persisted, curious, and Levi felt inclined to share. He shrugged, and ate while he explained.

            She was a prostitute, as well as a birria seller, because it was the only thing that made decent money. She came to America, as he put it, “for the same lie they all heard”. He seemed to be uncomfortable, but it was the simple fact that Levi never spoke of this. She wasn’t able to find legal work. She wasn’t a legal citizen. She continued with prostitution. She “dropped dead” as he put it, from over-exhaustion and an STI that she couldn’t afford to treat properly. Levi got taken to a foster home. He fought the family and ran away several times. He joined the military, which surprised Marie because he never mentioned it, and he became a policeman afterwards. He didn’t mention the thrill that stealing gave him, or his constant desire for death since seeing it brandished on his mother’s face that day. But those sorts of things he felt would stay in his bones for the rest of his life. Some things couldn’t be said in any language.

            Marie’s parents seemed humbled by the story, their food had gone cold while Levi spoke. He continued to eat the cold stew, feeling a gross sensation in the pit of his stomach for ever opening his mouth. Marie’s mother spoke up, and asked if he wanted coffee. Levi agreed. They took it black and bitter and hot, and Levi was grateful for that. She said they were both _tapatíos_ and spoke of her own upbringing. However, Levi couldn’t bring himself to say much other than murmuring “Claro.” Ever so often. He felt naked, and strange, that he was so easily opened up by strangers, but their appearances certainly didn’t help him. He felt like he had to come forward and say the truth otherwise his mother would get upset. And just the idea of that made him feel sick. Marie read the air enough to mention that Levi was probably tired, and ask if he could spend the night. Marie’s father remarked that they couldn’t share a bed, to Marie’s embarrassment again, and Levi agreed, and admitted he did not have to stay if they did not want it.

            The two parents didn’t seem to mind greatly, it seemed they actually liked Levi, which was strange for him. He asked to go shower first, and Marie showed him where the bathroom was. While Levi showered he scrubbed his skin red and raw on instinct. He was thinking of Kuchel. He was thinking of Erwin. He was thinking of Erwin’s revolver, of all things, of the day that actor held him captive in a diner for all of two seconds—wondering what he had bestowed Erwin with that day. He sat in the shower, rubbing a pumice over his feet, scratching his scalp so hard he almost bled while he cleaned his hair. He had blood under his fingernails by the time he was done. He felt disgusting, even when he scrubbed himself red.

            “You can stay in my brother’s room.” Marie explained. “His clothes might be too big for you, but it should be fine for the night.”

            Levi toweled himself off while Marie spoke to him behind the bathroom door.

            “I don’t know why you’re doing this.” Levi remarked. “You could arrest me and be done with it.”

            “The police never solve anything… no offense.”

            “You’re not wrong.” Levi remarked. “And I’m one of those dirty cops so I have no say otherwise.”

            Marie laughed softly. He could see the shadow of her feet under the door. Her hand came to the door. “I think I’m actually having fun with this… maybe that’s bad of me. I haven’t been out of the house for a while lately. Nothing but shopping for things or picking up the kids. I’m not even sure Nile knows how to cook. He probably had to order something… I think that was brave of you.”

            “What was?”

            “Telling my parents those things… I… I had no idea.”

            “It was a long time ago. I’m over it.” Levi huffed. “It doesn’t matter. Talking about it doesn’t hurt me anymore.”

            Marie didn’t say anything for a long while.

            “That’s not true.” She whispered.

            Levi couldn’t disagree. So he said nothing.

            “I’ll leave the clothes on the floor over here. The bedroom is upstairs; the second door on the right. Might be dusty. It hasn’t been touched in years. He’s still in active duty.”

            “I appreciate it.” Levi mumbled, picking the loose threads in the towel. “You can go.”

            Marie set the clothing down, and Levi waited for her shadow to disappear. He shut his eyes, sitting on the counter beside the sink, and watching steam trail on the mirror. He got up to change his clothing. Marie’s brother must’ve been about as tall as Erwin, because Levi noticed the clothing was about the same size. Levi hiked up the pants and rolled up the shirt sleeves. He had his pants up while he walked up the stairs. Levi could hear Marie speaking loudly to her mother, arguing. Levi came up to the second floor quietly, and Marie’s mother suddenly stepped out of her room, and looked to Levi.

            “Ah! Levi, espero que no te moleste que te pregunte… pero ¿estás soltera?”

            “Mamá!” Marie grabbed her mother’s shoulders, only to have the smaller woman bearing a slight anxious smile, looking expectantly to Levi.

             Levi shook his head. “Lo siento, tengo novio.”

            “Novio?” Her grin fell to a more shocked expression.

            Levi nodded. “Sí. Novio.” He turned his head and walked down the hallway. He figured if they kicked him out on that he wouldn’t really care either way. He had been honest enough so far. Levi went to the room Marie mentioned, and glanced around. It was clean, bed made neatly, camouflage uniforms from the Air Force were hanging as well as regular t-shirts and jeans. Levi was in his sweatpants and shirt. He sat down on the bed. There was some dust on the counters, but it was nothing major. It only irritated him slightly.

            “We’ll wash your clothes tonight. It should be done soon.” Marie stood in the doorway. “So is Erwin your boyfriend now?”

            “Only when it’s convenient.”

            “I suppose that was convenient for you?” Marie turned to glance towards her mother’s room. “She thinks you’re lying not to break my heart.”

            "You’re married.”

            “She thinks you’re a better match. I'm assuming because you're tapatíos. She said 'a dozen people get divorced a day in California anyway'.” Marie rolled her eyes and laughed.

            “She’s not wrong.” Levi laid back, and turned his head. “Even if I was straight, and even if I was single, I wouldn’t date you… I destroy everyone I touch.”

            “You think so?”

            The half-rotten face of Levi’s mother showed up in his mind again.

            “I know so.”

            “Erwin is still all together… if you can call it that.”

            “That’s different. He’s crazy.” Levi huffed. “We’re both crazy.”

            “So you can’t ‘destroy’ him because of that?”

            “No. We’ll destroy each other.” Levi folded his arms. He seemed to really believe what he was saying. Marie put her hand on the doorway, and leaned towards the left for a moment. She shook her head, a small smile on her face, and a sad look in her eyes. She stood up straight, and turned around to walk away. She said something soft, under her breath.

             “I never knew people could love each other so much.”

             Levi sat up to respond, but Marie was already gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all your comments, this chapter took a while since I've been busy. Your comments really help keep me going. Also, I am not fluent in Spanish, so if you notice any mistakes, please don't hesitate to let me know. I had it proofread, but an extra pair of eyes is always helpful. :-)

**Author's Note:**

> Follow my blog on tumblr "arcadiamahler" for updates, if you like.


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